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"DISTINGUISHED  SERVICE" 
CITIZENSHIP 


SOUTHERN  SOCIOLOGICAL  CONGRESS 
^  Knoxville,  Tennessee 


//// 


Edited  by 

J.  E.  McCULLOCH 


SOUTHERN  SOCIOLOGICAL  CONGRESS 
Washington,  D.  C. 


H/0 
S7 


THIS  BOOK 
IS  NOT  COPYRIGHTED 

It  is  published 

For    the    benefit    of    the    public.     Speakers    and 

writers  are  requested  to  aid  in  the   educational 

campaign  of  the  Congress  by  using  such  matter 

as  suits  their  purpose,  giving  proper  credit  to 

THE  SOUTHERN  SOCIOLOGICAL 
CONGRESS 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTE 


Since  the  purpose  of  the  Southern  Sociological  Congress 
in  publishing  an  annual  report  is  to  popularize  the  teaching  of 
social  welfare,  the  Governing  Board  authorized  two  departures 
from  our  former  custom  in  the  publication  of  this  volume — 
greater  condensation  of  matter  and  the  use  of  paper  cover. 
Of  all  the  addresses  delivered  at  the  last  Congress,  we  have 
included  only  those  that  have  the  most  vital  bearing  on 
problems  uppermost  at  the  present  hour.  It  is  difficult  to  think 
habitually  in  terms  of  the  new  world  order,  but  every  article 
in  this  book  has  a  vital  message  for  all  who  desire  to  be  citizens 
distinguished  for  public  service  and  who  wish  to  do  their  full 
part  in  making  America  a  genuine  democracy  capable  of  world-, 
wide  service. 

In  pursuance  of  action  taken  at  the  Knoxville  Congress, 
the  Southern  territory  has  been  divided  and  the  Southwestern 
Sociological  Congress  has  been  organized  coordinate  with  the 
Southern  Sociological  Congress.  The  organization  of  each 
appears  in  this  volume  under  the  head  of  "Organization." 

The  Editor. 

Washington,  D.  C,  December  8,  1919. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Introductory  Note  _ _ 3 

I.    The  Coming  Democracy  „ 7-26 

The  Platform  of  the  Southern  Sociological  Congress 8 

Flag  of  Our  Fathers 10 

The  Coming  Democracy — How  Shall  It  Come? _ 11 

Rev.  Worth  M.  Tippy,  D.  D. 

The  League  of  Nations 20 

Professor  W.  J.  Campbell,  Ph.  D. 

II.    Community  Service  _ 27-71 

A  Creed  and  a  Crusade 28 

"Comrades"    _ „ 30 

The  Practice  of  Citizenship 31 

Henry  E.  Jackson,  A.  M.,  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Education. 
Community   Organization 41 

James  E.  Rogers. 
Social  Reconstruction  in  the  South 49 

Hastings  H.  Hart,  D.  D.,  LL.  D., 

Director  Child  Welfare,  Russell  Sage  Foundation. 
The  Proper  Use  of  Leisure  Time 68 

T.  S.  Settle,  War  Camp  Community  Service. 
It's  a  Hard  Fight  to  Save  the  Children 72 

III.  Public  Health 73-94 

The  Value  of  Prevention „ „ „ „         74 

A  Community  Program  for  Public  Health „ 75 

Major  Charles  W.  Stiles,  M.  D., 

U.  S.  Public  Health  Service. 
The  Menace  of  Venereal  Diseases 80 

Oscar  Dowling,  M.  D., 

President  Louisiana  State  Board  of  Health. 
The  Government's  War  on  Venereal  Diseases 86 

Frank  H.  Gardner,  M.  D., 

U.  S.  Public  Health  Service. 

IV.  Child   Welfare   _ „. 95-104 

A  Prayer  for  Children „ 96 

Dr.  Walter  Rauschenbusch. 
Child   Welfare   in    Belgium 97 

Miss  L.  E.  Carter,  of  Brussells,  Belgium. 
Child  Welfare  in  England 100 

Sir  Arthur  Newsholme,  M.  D.,  of  London,  England. 

V.    Race  Relations   _ 105-136 

The  Congress  Resolution  on  Ljmching „ 106 

The  Program  of  the  Congress  on  Race  Relations 107 

Introductory  Statement  109 

James  Hardy  Dillard,  D.  Litt.,  LL.  D., 

President  Anna  T.  Jeanes  Foundation, 

Director  John  F.  Slater  Fund,  and 

Member  General  Education  Board. 


6  DISTINGUISHED   SERVICE       CITIZENSHIP 

PAGE 

The  Outlook  1 12 

Professor  J.  L.  Kesler,  Ph.  D., 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  College,  Nashville,  Tenn. 
Interracial  Cooperation  and  the  South's  New  Economic 

Conditions    122 

Professor  Monroe  N.  Work,  Tuskegee  Institute,  Ala. 

The  Call  of  the  South  to  Prevent  Lynching 129 

Professor  Edwin  Mims,  Ph.  D.,  Vanderbilt  University. 

VI.    Industrial  Progress  137-154 

The  American's  Creed  138 

The  Material  Progress  of  the  Laborer 139 

Professor  Theodore  W.  Glocker,  Ph.  D., 

University  of  Tennessee. 
Industrial  Democracy  147 

Professor  Jerome  Dowde,  Ph.  D., 

University  of  Oklahoma. 
The  Search  for  Social  Justice 149 

Mr.  Robert  B.  Eleazer. 

VII.    The  Church  Conserving  Life 155-170 

The  Program  of  Jesus 156 

The  Coming  Church  and  Its  Social  Program 157 

Rev.  Charles  T.  Alexander,  D.  D. 
What  the  Church  Can  Do  to  Conserve  Human  Life 163 

Rabbi  Rudolph  I.  Coffee,  Ph.  D. 

VIII.    Organization   171 

The  Southern  Sociological  Congress 172 

The  Southwestern  Sociological  Congress 172 

Index  to  Subj  ects 174 

Index  to  Speakers,  Writers  and  Officers 175 

List  of   Publications 176 


I.     THE  COMING  DEMOCRACY 


The  Platform  of  the  Southern  Sociological  Congress 
The  Coming  Democracy — How  Shall  It  Come  ? 
The  League  of  Nations 


THE  PLATFORM  OF  THE  SOUTHERN 
SOCIOLOGICAL  CONGRESS 

The  Southern  Sociological  Congress  stands : 

For  the  home  as  the  institution  of  preeminence  in  our 
democracy. 

For  the  school  as  the  capital  of  the  community  and 
proper  center  of  educational,  civic,  and  social  activities. 

For  the  church  as  an  essential  institution  of  a  democ- 
racy for  moral  and  religious  training. 

For  the  coordination  of  social,  civic,  and  industrial 
activities  and  agencies  so  as  to  enable  the  home,  the 
school,  and  the  church  to  function  in  the  largest  possible 
degree  in  the  conservation  and  welfare  of  human  life. 

For  every  possible  safeguard  for  women  that  they 
may  be  kept  fit — physically,  mentally,  and  morally — to 
perform  the  most  sacred  functions  of  the  home. 

For  adequate  financial  support  for  the  school  that  the 
teaching  force  may  be  maintained  at  the  highest  efficiency, 
and  that  no  child  may  be  untrained,  or  improperly  trained, 
for  lack  of  suitable  facilities. 

For  the  sacredness  alike  of  seven  days  a  week — six 
hallowed  for  honest  and  useful  work,  and  one  universally 
recognized  and  made  to  serve  man  in  his  need  for  rest 
and  worship. 

For  placing  human  welfare  above  property  values  in 
industry. 

For  the  reduction  of  the  hours  of  labor  to  the  point 
where  every  worker  may  be  afforded  a  proper  degree  of 
leisure  for  mental,  moral  and  social  culture  and  for 
recreational  enjoyment. 

For  the  equitable  division  of  the  products  of  industry 
between  capital  and  labor. 

For  complete  justice  to  all  and  for  strict  uniformity 
in  the  enforcement  of  law,  both  as  to  person  and  property. 

For  justice  and  good-will  to  govern  in  all  race 
relations. 

For  the  prevention  of  mob  violence  and  lawlessness 
of  every  kind. 


For  the  suppression  of  prostitution  and  the  abolition 
of  the  red-light  districts  of  our  cities. 

For  the  prevention  of  disease  and  the  conservation  of 
health  for  the  individual,  for  the  community,  and  for  the 
nation. 

For  temperance  and  the  strict  enforcement  of  the 
prohibition  laws. 

For  legislation  that  will  require  individuals  and 
physicians  to  report  all  communicable  diseases. 

For  the  proper  care  and  treatment  of  defectives — the 
criminal,  the  blind,  the  deaf,  the  insane,  the  epileptic,  and 
the  feeble-minded — and  for  the  segregation  and  treat- 
ment of  incurable  disease. 

For  thorough  Americanization  and  such  a  strict 
loyalty  to  the  Nation  that  failure  of  any  one  to  meet  his 
obligations  of  citizenship — such  as  voting,  paying  taxes, 
and  obedience  to  law — would  be  regarded  by  the  public 
as  immoral  and  second  only  to  sedition. 


1 
1 

FLAG  OF  OUR  FATHERS 

(Tune,  St.  Catherine,  L.  M.) 

Flag  of  our  fathers,  waving  still, 

Despite  the  world-wide  war  of  might; 

Columbia  lifts  her  banner  high, 

Enthroned  upon  eternal  right. 
■J.: J      .  y,.      Flag  of  our  fathers,  noble  flag; 

f>rrF  ,n'rtn".     ^^  will  be  true  to  thee  till  death! 

Work  of  our  fathers,  standing  firm, 

Who  dared  to  smite  the  Tyrant's  heel, 

Devoting  all  to  liberty. 

1  JSitrri       ^  nation  built  for  common  weal. 

'  .iX.JVt  ■jTif      Work  of  our  fathers,  noble  work ; 

S          ldfj'>.|  3!i      We  will  defend  this  work  till  death! 

Life  of  our  fathers,  pioneers;                                                  \ 

All  pledged  to  serve  each  other's  good ; 

i                              Each  lived  for  all  and  all  for  each, 

;                              While  blazing  ways  for  brotherhood. 

\                             Life  of  our  fathers,  noble  life; 

;                              We  will  be  true  to  thee  till  death ! 

Land  of  our  fathers,  hallowed  land,                                      ' 

Red  blooming  still  from  heroes'  blood,                                   \ 

;                              Disgraced  by  mobs  and  banners  red,                                      ; 

•                             A  land  baptized  for  brotherhood. 

!                              0  land,  our  fathers'  hallowed  land,                                         i 

j                            We  will  defend  thy  name  till  death!                                    ■ 

!                                                                                                                                                                                          i 

'                                                                                                                                                                                       1 

God  of  our  fathers.  Lord  of  All, 

O  save  us  from  our  bitter  strife, 

And  from  blind  greed  for  selfish  gold, 

Lest  we  disgrace  our  fathers'  life. 

God  of  our  fathers,  Lord  of  All, 

We  will  be  true  to  Thee  till  death!                                      ; 

THE  COMING  DEMOCRACY— HOW  SHALL  IT 

COME? 

REV.    WORTH    M.   TIPPY,  D.  D.,   SECRETARY  OF  THE  COMMISSION 

ON     THE     CHURCH     AND     SOCIAL     SERVICE,     FEDERAL 

COUNCIL    OF     THE     CHURCHES    OF     CHRIST 

IN  AMERICA 

THE  COMING  SOCIAL  MOVEMENT 

The  war  has  brought  about  amazing  social  emergencies 
and  is  forcing  the  United  States  and  the  world  into  the  most 
radical  and  far-reaching  forms  of  cooperative  effort.  It  has 
seen  an  unprecedented  advance  of  labor  organization,  collective 
bargaining,  the  eight-hour  day,  fixing  of  wages  to  meet  ad- 
vancing cost  of  living,  equal  pay  for  women,  modern  standards 
of  housing  and  of  welfare  conditions  in  war  industries,  social 
insurance,  and  federal  organization  for  unemployment. 
National  control  of  capital,  industry,  labor  power,  food  pro- 
duction, conservation,  and  distribution,  which  would  have  been 
impossible  two  years  ago,  have  been  forced  by  war  conditions. 
It  has  also  witnessed  an  enormous  development  of  social  effort, 
especially  of  that  larger  democratic  effort  by  which  organiza- 
tions of  citizens  cooperate  with  the  government.  The  entire 
nation  has  been  put  to  training  in  social  service. 

It  is  now  apparent  that  the  war  will  be  followed  by  an  era 
of  social  action  on  a  large  scale,  which  will  steadily  increase 
in  power.  One  is  not  extravagant  who  forecasts  that  the 
dominance  of  profiteering  and  personal  indulgence  is  coming 
to  an  end,  and  that  in  the  not  distant  future  the  controlling 
concern  of  the  nation  will  be  for  social  justice,  and  to  insure 
the  progress  of  the  masses  of  the  people.  To  accomplish  these 
objectives  the  full  power  of  the  people — through  federal,  state, 
and  municipal  governments,  and  through  a  vast  cooperation 
of  social  agencies — will  be  brought  increasingly  to  bear. 

WHAT  WE  ARE  AIMING  AT 

One  is  helped  to  an  understanding  of  the  social  changes 
that  are  coming  by  thinking  first  in  terms  of  actual  social 
welfare  instead  of  discussing  first  the  methods  by  which  they 


12  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

may  be  attained.  Many  of  these  purposes  for  which  society 
is  striving  are  now  clearly  defined,  and  great  progress  has  been 
made  toward  their  accomplishment. 

1.  The  Abolition  of  Poverty. — To  abolish  poverty^  or  to 
reduce  it  to  an  inconsiderable  and  diminishing  minimum,  has 
become  one  of  the  fixed  purposes  of  the  more  advanced  states. 
By  poverty  one  means  not  only  the  wretched  poverty  of  the 
underfed,  poorly  housed,  meanly  clothed  dependents  of 
modern  civilization,  but  of  those  millions  who  live  in  the 
borderland  of  the  submerged;  those  who  can  not  get  ahead, 
who  live  from  hand  to  mouth,  who  are  thrown  into  poverty  by 
illness,  old  age,  or  death,  who  can  not  pay  their  way  to  the 
privileges  which  all  should  enjoy,  who  are  forced  to  see  their 
children  grow  up  without  opportunities,  or  with  painfully 
restricted  opportunities. 

2.  The  Problem  of  Distribution. — Efficiency  of  produc- 
tion has  now  reached  a  stage  at  which,  while  the  possibilities 
of  increased  production  are  immense,  the  emphasis  must  be 
upon  distribution;  a  distribution  of  the  products  of  the 
common  labor  of  the  world  which  will  be  not  only  more  just 
but  better  adjusted  to  the  needs  of  various  social  groups.  We 
can  not  in  the  future  permit  the  glaring  social  contrasts  of  low 
wages,  poverty,  and  grinding  self-denial  on  the  one  hand  and 
luxury  and  overindulgence  on  the  other.  The  primary  con- 
sideration can  not  be  property  rights  and  the  legal  sanction  of 
large  incomes,  but  the  welfare  of  the  masses  of  the  people. 

3.  Public  Health. — Poverty  is  as  deeply  rooted  in  disease 
as  in  economic  wrongs.  The  modern  health  movement  has 
set  itself  the  task  of  sanitary  conditions  of  living  and  of  work, 
of  wholesome,  abundant,  and  balanced  diet,  of  the  control  of 
the  great  plagues  which  afflict  humanity — such  as  tuberculosis, 
typhoid,  pneumonia,  and  venereal  infections — of  the  elimina- 
tion of  occupational  diseases,  and  overwork.  The  effects  upon 
the  happiness,  economic  resources,  and  industrial  productivity 
of  the  nation  will  be  incalculable  if  this  movement  succeeds. 

4.  Control  of  Vice  and  Crime. — Poverty,  disease,  and 
vice  often  walk  hand  in  hand.  Prostitution,  gambling,  the  use 
of  stimulants,  the  prevalence  and  perpetuation  of  crime  are 


THE    COMING    DEMOCRACY  13 

enormously  expensive  and  degenerative.  Society  is  no  longer 
disposed  to  accept  them  as  inevitable  and  irremediable.  It  has 
learned  that  they  can  be  controlled,  and  one  can  sense  almost 
day  by  day  the  growth  of  a  sentiment  that  they  must  and  shall 
be  controlled. 

5.  Public  Recreation. — Wholesome  and  abundant  recre- 
ation for  all  the  people,  universal  vacations,  rest  for  wives 
and  mothers,  the  short-hour  day  even  for  business  men,  maids, 
and  farm  workers,  education  in  the  use  of  leisure  time — these 
are  written  large  in  the  program  of  the  future. 

6.  Democratic  Education. — The  United  States  has  al- 
ways striven  for  the  education  of  all  her  children  and  youth. 
But  this  is  taking  a  new  meaning  and  insistence.  It  means  the 
best  for  the  humblest;  the  training  based  upon  capacity,  re- 
sources for  every  home  to  allow  the  education  of  the  children, 
food,  and  medical  care  to  make  minds  receptive  and  active; 
childhood  and  youth  devoted  primarily  to  education  and  not  to 
bread  winning, 

7.  The  Extension  of  Democracy. — Just  ahead  is  a  rapid 
and  determined  extension  of  democratic  ideas  and  principles 
to  religion,  social  life,  education,  industrial  management, 
politics,  and  control  of  material  resources.  The  purposes 
which  inspire  the  movement  are  to  make  the  privileges  of  the 
few  the  possession  of  many,  as  the  political  rights  of  the 
English  nobility  were  passed  on  to  the  commons;  and  to 
destroy,  by  higher  ideals  of  the  dignity  of  life  and  by  the 
increased  influence  of  the  workers,  the  contempt  which  the  so- 
called  upper  classes  feel  for  the  so-called  lower  classes. 

8.  Improvement  in  Public  Administration,  Especially  of 
Municipal  Administration,  and  a  Widening  of  Its  Spheres  of 
Action. — The  war  has  shown  the  nation  what  can  be  accom- 
plished for  the  common  good  by  a  larger  use  of  the  machinery 
of  government  and  it  will  not  be  forgotten.  Can  we  fail  to 
learn  the  lessons  of  the  control  of  venereal  diseases,  of  the 
discipline  and  physical  upbuilding  of  millions  of  young  men, 
of  the  rapid  training  in  skilled  trades  of  other  millions,  of  food 
production,  conservation,  and  distribution,  of  the  rationing 
of  steel  and  coal,  of  restraint  upon  luxuries,  of  drastic  taxa- 


14  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

tion,  for  war  emergencies,  of  the  influence  of  an  administra- 
tion upon  national  ideals  and  conscience,  of  the  training  of  the 
people  in  the  sacrifice  of  nonessentials  for  essentials?  Can  we 
ever  forget  the  price  we  have  had  to  pay  for  partisan  govern- 
ment in  war  time  and  for  untrained  and  inexperienced  offi- 
cials? Some  of  the  most  vital  tasks  of  the  period  following 
the  war  will  be  to  perfect  the  machinery  of  federal,  state,  and 
municipal  governments  in  the  United  States ;  to  lift  them  out 
of  partisan  politics;  to  make  official  positions  not  a  political 
career  but  a  profession. 

9.  International  Cooperation. — The  war  has  also  made 
it  clear  that  the  safety  of  the  world  is  absolutely  dependent 
on  international  organization,  based  upon  friendship,  good-will 
and  adequate  power,  and  involving  world-wide  industrial 
cooperation.  Here  rests  the  hope  of  disarmament,  the  end  of 
all  war,  and  the  larger  prosperity  and  happiness  of  every 
nation. 

BOLSHEVISM  OR  CONSTITUTIONAL  METHODS 

This  era  of  powerful  social  action  which  is  certain  to  fol- 
low the  war  will  take  in  the  main  one  or  the  other  of  two 
forms  of  expression,  although  each  will  divide  as  now  into 
more  or  less  radical  movements. 

One  will  be  violent  and  revolutionary,  after  the  type  of 
Russian  Bolshevism.  It  will  be  opportunist  under  necessity, 
but  ready  at  any  favorable  opportunity  to  go  the  whole  length 
of  social  revolution. 

The  other  will  be  conservatively  radical  and  evolutionary, 
following  the  British  idea  of  constitutional  democracy,  which 
is  "Continuous  evolution  from  one  social  state  to  another, 
retaining  at  each  step  enough  of  the  old  system  to  keep 
economic  life  functioning  continuously,  progress  being 
achieved,  not  chiefly  by  force,  but  by  education,  agitation,  and 
information."  The  one  is  class-conscious — bitterly  and 
doctrinally  class-conscious — after  the  idea  of  the  Bolsheviki, 
the  T.  W.  W.,  and  the  radical  wing  of  the  Social  Democratic 
party;  the  other  is  comprehensive,  following  in  its  more 
radical  form  the  ideal  of  the  British  Labor  party,  which  aims 
to  unite  all  workers,  whether  of  hand  or  of  brain.  The  one 
is  program  democracy,  the  other  genetic  democracy. 


THE    COMING    DEMOCRACY  15 

Now  it  is  a  matter  of  extreme  importance  to  recognize  that 
any  of  the  social  objective  mentioned  in  the  previous  cata- 
logue may  be  attained  by  either  of  these  methods.  It  is  not  a 
question  of  patching  up  an  old  system  or  of  building  a  new, 
as  impatient  thinkers  like  to  say,  but  a  choice  of  roads  to  the 
same  destinatioii.  For  example,  a  socialist  society  can  con- 
ceivably abolish  poverty  by  making  an  end  of  the  wage  system, 
setting  up  collective  ownership  and  operation,  and  dividing 
the  products  of  labor  so  that  each  shall  have  an  abundance 
of  life's  fundamental  necessities  and  many  of  its  luxuries.  Or 
poverty  may  be  abolished  under  existing  forms  of  social  or- 
ganization by  the  minimum  wage,  federal  control  of  unem- 
ployment, government  projects  such  as  forestry  irrigation  and 
road-building  to  take  up  the  unemployment  in  slack  periods, 
industrial  education,  social  insurance,  old-age  and  mothers' 
pensions,  the  short-hour  day,  high  wages,  equal  wages  for 
women,  control  of  disease  and  vice,  graduated  taxation  for 
public  purposes. 

The  same  principle  will  apply  to  each  of  the  other  social 
objectives  mentioned.  Certain  great  infections  have  already 
been  brought  under  control.  Gambling  and  drunkenness  are 
disappearing  vices  in  the  present  order  of  society.  The  end 
of  alcoholism  is  in  sight  with  national  prohibition.  The  short- 
hour  day  is  now  firmly  established  in  the  United  States,  pro- 
vision for  public  recreation  is  becoming  abundant,  and  recre- 
ation is  being  made  educational  and  ethical  as  well  as  recre- 
ative. We  can  do  anything  we  desire  in  public  education 
under  existing  social  organization.  Democracy  is  expanding 
with  bewildering  rapidity.  It  is  revolutionizing  the  churches, 
lifting  women  to  an  equal  status  with  men,  and  forcing  in- 
dustrial democracy  to  the  stage  of  an  irrepressible  movement. 
Industrial  democracy  may  be  obtained  through  collective  bar- 
gaining and  cooperation  in  ownership  and  management,  as 
well  as  by  the  cooperative  commonwealth,  and  without  the 
immense  and  unreachable  tyranny  of  the  latter.  The  decade 
preceding  the  war  witnessed  a  swift  advance  in  municipal 
government  in  the  United  States,  and  as  the  war  has 
progressed  the  determination  to  create  a  league  of  democratic 
nations  to  enforce  peace  has  become  one  of  the  controlling 
ideas  of  the  confllict. 


16  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

A  choice  of  methods 

We  shall  each  have  to  choose  between  these  two  methods : 
between  the  Russian  idea  and  the  British  idea,  between 
program  democracy  and  genetic  democracy.  Personally  I  un- 
hesitatingly take  my  place  with  the  English  method.  I  have 
learned  in  practical  administration  to  distrust  administrative 
prevision  which  reaches  far  in  advance.  Things  never  come 
out  as  the  wisest  men  plan  them.  Too  many  factors  are  in- 
volved, and  society  is  ever  advancing  and  changing  from 
within  as  well  as  from  without.  Nobody  can  know  what  the 
future  society  will  be.  I  fear  men  who  are  willing  to  revolu- 
tionize the  world  quickly  and  to  stake  the  lives  of  millions  on 
the  accuracy  of  their  judgments.  I  could  wish  a  nation  no 
greater  evil  than  to  fall  under  the  administration  of  agitators. 
They  are  usually  devoted  men  but  theorists  and  extremists, 
valuable  as  agitators  but  dangerous  as  governors. 

The  Bolsheviki  are  a  case  in  point.  Granting  their  sin- 
cerity and  the  difficulties  under  which  they  have  worked,  a 
tyro  in  administration  might  have  known  what  would  happen. 
They  betrayed  the  democracies  of  the  world  in  their  hour  of 
travail.  In  their  fanaticism  they  looked  upon  President 
Wilson  and  the  United  States  as  upon  the  Kaiser  and  Ger- 
many. To  them  they  were  but  capitalist  states  and  capitalist 
rulers.  They  staked  the  safety  of  Russia  upon  their  theories, 
and  millions  have  died  and  will  die  from  starvation  as  a  con- 
sequence. They  demoralized  industry  and  transportation. 
They  dehberately  destroyed  the  discipline  of  the  army,  de- 
mobilized in  the  face  of  the  enemy,  opened  their  frontiers  to 
the  most  unscrupulous  and  undemocratic  of  powers,  and  now 
find  themselves  struggling  to  recreate  an  army,  and  advocating 
universal  military  service.  They  carried  the  class-conscious 
idea  to  its  logical  conclusions,  created  a  new  and  arbitrary 
government  by  a  fraction  of  the  population,  composed  of 
workingmen  and  soldiers,  suppressed  freedom  of  speech  and 
press,  murdered  officers,  confiscated  the  property  of  opposing 
classes,  and  slaughtered  without  trial  until  the  tyranny  of  the 
German  was  preferable  to  their  excesses.  At  a  time  when  we 
had  hoped  wars  might  cease  with  the  overthrow  of  the  German 


THE    COMING    DEMOCRACY  17 

autocracy,  they  threaten  the  world  with  a  new  autocracy, 
which  combines  intrigue  and  terrorism  with  arbitrary  miHtary 
power. 

No  man  should  ever  again  advocate  the  class-conscious 
struggle,  certainly  not  in  democratic  nations.  So  long  as  social 
control  is  based  upon  that  principle  we  shall  have  class  gov- 
ernments, bitterly  hated,  violently  attacked,  with  inevitable 
cruelty  and  tyranny.  Every  triumph  will  contain  within  it  the 
seeds  of  revolt.  Instead  of  an  end  of  war  we  shall  have  a 
perpetuation  of  wars.  We  shall  substitute  might  for  justice, 
arbitrary  powers  for  democratic  action,  the  law  of  survival 
for  a  morally  directed  social  evolution.  Theoretically  it  is 
conceivable  that  an  end  of  classes  may  be  made  by  the  destruc- 
tion of  all  classes  except  the  proletariat  through  the  triumph 
of  the  class-conscious  proletariat;  but  the  idea  is  savage. 
Actually,  it  will  never  be  acomplished.  The  just  way  to 
secure  the  final  cooperation  of  all  classes  is  by  the  democratic 
methods. 

To  accomplish  that  cooperation  we  should  strive  with  all 
our  power,  through  a  most  determined  educational  propa- 
ganda. The  time  has  come  to  recognize  that  the  Christian 
idea  is  the  cooperation  of  all  classes,  not  by  violence  but  by 
united  action  in  a  comprehensive  brotherhood.  Christian 
people  should  see  this  and  stand  on  it  as  positively  and  aggres- 
sively as  the  Bolshevist  stands  on  the  dictatorship  of  the 
proletariat.  The  class-conscious  struggle  must  be  seen  by  all 
the  people  to  be  unChristian,  undemocratic,  tyrannical,  and 
self -destructive,  justifiable  only  when  the  constitutional 
method  is  impossible.  Society  has  advanced  far  enough,  at 
least  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  countries,  to  allow  constitutional 
methods  a  chance  in  the  social  order,  and  to  allow  the  direction 
of  education  toward  collective  action  for  the  welfare  of  all 
classes. 

Social  changes  are  also  safer  and  surer,  from  the  point  of 
view  of  the  public  welfare,  when  they  proceed  by  experimental 
methods.  It  would  be  wiser,  for  example,  for  the  people  to 
try  out  government  operation  of  railroads  and  to  create 
efficient  public  management  of  such  an  industry  before  na- 
tionalizing mines  and  other  great  industries.     It  would  be 


18  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

wiser,  in  order  to  see  how  it  will  work,  to  allow  the  workers 
in  a  given  industry  to  direct  it  themselves,  to  experiment  upon 
some  limited  branch  of  the  government  service,  before  giving 
the  principle  of  guild  or  craft  socialism  a  wider  application. 
The  test  of  any  social  theory  will  be  finally  its  effectiveness, 
its  economy,  its  relation  to  the  progress  of  the  masses,  and  not 
its  logical  character  or  its  sentimental  appeal. 

DO  WE  MEAN   BUSINESS? 

But  if  we  are  to  choose  the  English  method  of  constitu- 
tional democracy  we  must  be  in  earnest  about  it,  as  the  English 
have  been.  The  danger  of  gentle  democracy  is  that  it  shall 
fall  into  the  control  of  the  conservatives,  and  that  it  may  not 
be  constructive  and  effectively  radical.  The  welfare  and  rights 
of  the  masses  of  the  people  are  imperative.  The  suffering  and 
losses  in  the  existing  state  of  things  are  so  great  that 
temporizing  is  out  of  the  question.  Reactionary  people, 
profiteers,  favored  classes  intrenched  behind  privileges,  who 
will  not  share  in  the  program  of  democracy,  must  be  reached 
by  education  and  by  organized  power  of  society  acting  as  a 
whole. 

Bolshevists  mean  business ;  nobody  doubts  that.  They 
have  taken  their  lives  in  their  hands  and  the  lives  of  their 
countrymen.  They  speak  Bolshevist  English.  They  use  un- 
hesitatingly military  power,  dictatorship,  fire  and  starvation, 
secret  intrigue  on  spoken  and  written  propaganda  on  an  un- 
precedented scale.  They  scorn  the  customs  and  precedents  of 
civilized  nations.  They  have  deliberately  set  out  not  alone  to 
reorganize  Russia  but  to  upset  and  reorganize  the  world.  Let 
us  believe  that  in  the  main  they  desire  the  welfare  of  the 
masses  of  mankind,  that  they  have  been  set  a  horrible  example 
by  the  ruling  classes  of  Russia  and  Germany,  that  they  are 
striking  at  intolerable  wrong  and  tyranny. 

Now  can  those  who  believe  in  democracy,  and  are  com- 
mitted to  the  constitutional  method,  mean  business  also  ?  Can 
they  be  devoted  to  the  happiness  of  the  people?  Or  being  men 
and  women  of  power  and  opportunity,  will  they  turn  these 
gifts  to  profiteering?  Will  they  grow  indulgent,  lovers  of 
ease,  sensitive  to  flattery  and  preferment?  Will  their  social 
effort  become  that   of  the   dilletante,   timid,   remedial,   self- 


THE    COMING   DEMOCRACY  19 

regarding,  ineffectual?  Or  can  they  sacrifice?  Will  they 
fight?  Are  they  courageous  to  face  the  horrors  of  life  and 
realities  of  the  present  order  as  Christ  faced  them?  If  they 
will  not,  then  let  them  hand  over  the  happiness  of  the  masses 
to  better  people. 

Who  can  know  whether  the  powerful  will  become  the 
servants  of  all?  Only  the  future  can  determine.  Personally, 
I  think  that  an  ample  democratic  movement  is  forming,  as  a 
thunderstorm  gathers  together  from  the  wind-blown  cloud. 
Social  workers,  ministers,  business  men,  professional  men, 
officials  of  city  and  state,  working  men,  working  women, 
workers  with  hands,  workers  with  brain ;  men  and  women  in 
whose  hearts  is  love,  and  who  stand  for  each  and  for  all — 
these  are  coming  together  in  sufficient  numbers  and  with  a 
power  great  enough  to  enforce  an  orderly  social  evolution, 
which  has  for  its  chief  concern  the  well-being  of  the  masses. 
Let  us  pass  over  to  that  group  and  burn  the  bridges  behind  us. 


At  the  conclusion  of  this  address.  Dr.  Tippy  was  asked 
by  Rev.  R.  E.  Vale,  of  the  Second  Presbyterian  Church,  Knox- 
ville,  what  he  thought  the  churches  should  do  in  the  present 
social  reconstruction.  Dr.  Tippy  replied  categorically  as 
follows : 

"Open  every  church  seven  days  in  the  week  with  useful 
religious  and  social  ministries  for  the  people  of  the  community. 

"Close  out  little  competing  missions  in  the  crowded  neigh- 
borhoods, where  the  working  people  live,  and  replace  them 
with  large,  well-appointed  and  non-competing  churches. 

"Raise  up  thousands  of  ministers  who  know  economics  as 
well  as  they  know  theology,  and  who  desire  to  devote  them- 
selves to  those  toilers  and  their  families. 

"Federate  the  Protestant  churches  of  every  community, 
preserving  denominational  organization,  but  making  it  possible 
to  act  unitedly  on  religious  and  community  matters.  Seek 
cooperation  in  community  welfare  with  Catholics  and 
Hebrews. 

"Bring  the  churches  into  sympathetic  cooperation  with 
civic,  charitable,  commercial,  and  educational  agencies  of  the 
community,  with  the  federal  government  and  with  national 
social  agencies. 


20  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

"Bring  to  bear  the  power  of  the  church  on  the  things  for 
which  the  workers  are  struggHng;  such  as,  the  hving  wage, 
the  eight-hour  day,  one  day  of  rest  in  seven,  equal  pay  for 
women,  a  share  in  industrial  management. 

"Teach  the  cooperation  of  all  men  and  all  classes  in  place 
of  the  class  struggle.  Amalgamate  classes  by  brotherhood  in- 
stead of  by  fighting,  murder,  confiscation,  and  conquest. 

"Teach  reconstruction  by  orderly  political  and  industrial 
experimentation,  rather  than  by  revolution  and  the  class 
struggle. 

"Organize  the  women  of  the  churches  to  do  social  work  in 
their  own  communities,  especially  work  with  women  and  girls 
who  are  making  their  living  as  wage  earners.  In  the  South, 
concentrate  on  the  mill  workers  and  factory  toilers. 

"Make  the  spiritual  ministry  of  the  churches  more  power- 
ful than  it  has  ever  been  known  before.  These  are  days  when 
nothing  but  prayer  and  the  faith  of  great  endeavor  will  avail; 
days  in  which  all  who  lead  and  all  who  work  must  walk  with 
God." 

When  asked  whether  he  thought  the  church  was  aroused 
to  the  gravity  of  the  situation,  Dr.  Tippy  replied :  "They  are 
becoming  aroused  and  the  situation  is  most  encouraging.  A 
new  social  force  is  being  created  out  of  the  churches,  and  its 
power  will  be  very  great." 


THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

PROFESSOR  W.   J.    CAMPBELL,   PH.   D.,   FIELD  SECRETARY, 
LEAGUE  TO  ENFORCE  PEACE 

We  are  at  the  dawning  of  day  one,  year  one,  of  the  new 
era  in  international  relationships.  We  are  standing  at  the 
zero  hour  in  anticipation  of  civilization's  greatest  ofifensive 
against  the  forces  of  evil  and  chaos.  How  successful  we  shall 
be  in  attaining  our  objectives  and  how  far  civilization  shall  be 
able  to  advance  depends  upon  the  alertness  and  the  loyalty  of 
each  of  us,  and  of  the  allied  multitudes  of  the  common  folk 
of  the  world  who  have  common  interests. 


THE    LEAGUE   OF    NATIONS  21 

The  wheel  of  social  progress  is  constantly  in  the  direction 
of  the  widening  application  of  moral  principles  to  all  the  areas 
of  human  life  and  relationships.  The  center  of  gravity  in 
social  values  has  shifted  from  the  material  to  the  personal. 
Institutions  have  come  to  be  recognized  as  but  the  outgrowth 
of  the  struggle  of  the  human  soul  for  fuller  and  freer  life. 

We  are  living  in  a  contracting  world.  It  is  no  longer 
possible  for  any  individual  or  for  any  nation  to  live  alone.  We 
are  rubbing  elbows  with  all  the  world  all  the  time.  Multiplied 
points  of  contact  mean  multiplied  opportunities  for  friction — 
a  fact  which  proclaims  the  necessity  for  the  development  of 
new  and  increasingly  effective  social  machinery  for  settling 
international  difficulties. 

A  world  neighborhood  or  a  series  of  armed  camps — there 
is  no  other  alternative! 

Drawn  into  the  great  world-war — reluctantly  but  in- 
evitably— we  raised  in  an  incredibly  short  time  the  finest  and 
cleanest  army  in  the  history  of  the  world.  Our  boys  went 
overseas  by  the  thousands,  the  tens  of  thousands,  the  hundreds 
of  thousands,  yes,  even  by  the  millions.  Their  fighting  edge 
was  sharpened  by  devotion  to  great  ideals,  great  principles. 
These  ideals  were  fittingly  expressed  in  pungent  slogans  by  our 
President :  "A  war  to  end  war,"  "A  war  to  make  the  world 
safe  for  democracy,"  "A  war  to  estabhsh  the  reign  of  law, 
based  upon  the  consent  of  the  governed,  sustained  by  the  or- 
ganized opinion  of  mankind." 

In  that  spirit  our  boys  fought  and  on  November  11,  1918, 
Germany  quit.  She  quit  before  the  wrath  of  God  thundering 
through  the  awakened  conscience  of  the  American  people,  as 
that  conscience  became  dynamic  through  the  irresistible  flow 
of  men,  munitions,  and  money  to  the  seat  of  the  conflict.  The 
tide  of  battle  was  turned.  The  victory  was  won.  We  still 
face,  however,  the  even  more  important  task  of  safeguarding 
the  fruits  of  victory. 

The  price  of  victory  has  been  terrific — 7,358,000  slain  on 
the  field  of  battle — 60,000  of  our  own  boys.  Accustomed  as 
we  have  become  in  these  war  days  to  speaking  glibly  in  terms 
of  millions  and  even  billions,  we  can  form  no  adequate  con- 
ception of  the  magnitude  of  such  a  price — 7,358,000  of  the 
finest  boys  of  the  world  slain ! 


22  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

The  prize  to  be  won  at  such  a  price  must  be  worthy. 
Listening  to  the  beating  of  the  great  throbbing  heart  of  the 
common  folk  of  the  world,  there  is  a  persistent  demand  that 
the  only  adequate  prize  to  be  won  at  such  a  price  is  the 
elimination  of  war  as  a  method  of  settling  international 
disputes. 

There  must  not  be  another  war!  Our  sensibilities  have 
been  shocked  and  our  hearts  stunned  by  the  transcendent 
frightfulness  of  the  conflict  through  which  we  have  just 
passed.  But  terrible  as  this  war  has  been  in  its  unspeakable 
methods  of  destruction — let  us  not  forget  that  the  next  war 
will  begin  where  this  one  leaves  off. 

We  are  just  beginning  to  realize  as  accurate  information 
becomes  available,  how  nearly  the  allies  came  to  losing  the 
war  with  the  advent  of  the  German  mustard  gas  with  all  its 
agonizing  and  deadly  qualities.  But  are  we  aware  of  the  fact 
that  when  the  armistice  was  signed  the  United  States  was 
manufacturing  in  the  city  of  Cleveland  a  poison  gas  seventy- 
two  times  as  deadly  as  the  German  mustard  gas.  Nine  tons 
of  it  would  wipe  out  all  life  on  the  island  of  Manhattan  (New 
York),  and  yet  we  were  turning  out  ten  tons  a  day  when 
Germany  signed  the  armistice.  This  gas  was  never  used 
though  the  first  assignment  was  ready  for  shipment  to  the 
front.  The  supply  on  hand  has  been  sealed  in  casks  and 
dropped  in  mid-Atlantic  where  the  ocean  is  three  miles  deep. 
The  secret  formula  for  this  gas,  however,  has  been  locked  up 
in  the  vaults  of  the  war  department  at  Washington,  and  will 
be  available  for  any  future  conflict.  The  next  war  will  begin 
where  this  one  leaves  off!!! 

Just  before  leaving  New  York  I  went  aboard  the  great 
battleship  Mississippi — probably  one  of  the  most  powerful 
battleships  afloat.  As  I  stood  in  the  shadow  of  those  great 
guns  with  a  range  of  thirty-one  miles,  they  told  me  of  the 
wonderful  efficiency  in  marksmanship  as  evidenced  by  their 
recent  target  practice — seventy-two  (72)  shots  in  six  minutes, 
all  hits.  They  delighted  in  the  story  of  one  gunner  who 
scored  three  bull's  eyes  with  his  first  three  shots,  demolished 
the  target  with  the  next  three,  and  then,  that  his  remaining 


THE    LEAGUE    OF    NATIONS  23 

three  shells  might  not  be  wasted,  trained  his  gun  on  the  target 
of  the  second  squad  and  demolished  it  with  the  remaining 
three  shots. 

A  few  weeks  ago  in  Detroit  I  was  sitting  at  dinner  with 
one  of  the  industrial  leaders  of  that  great  city.  He  was  telling 
us  with  pride  of  what  Detroit  had  done  toward  winning  the 
war.  He  had  just  come  from  an  inspection  of  a  model  of 
the  new  manless  bombing  plane.  He  said  the  thing  was 
weird.  It  was  so  finely  adjusted  and  so  sensitive  that  it  re- 
sponded to  the  slightest  pressure.  This  invention  was  the 
result  of  the  master  genius  of  six  of  the  nation's  foremost 
mechanical  engineers.  It  was  built  to  rise  and  maintain  a 
fixed  height  and  a  fixed  direction  irrespective  of  opposing  air 
currents  for  150  miles.  It  carried  250  pounds  of  T.  N.  T. 
At  the  end  of  its  flight  the  wings  automatically  dropped  oflf 
and  the  whole  mass  dropped  to  the  ground  and  scrapped.  The 
charge  of  T.  N.  T.  was  set  to  explode  on  any  one  of  three 
systems — either  at  a  certain  height,  at  a  certain  time  or  on 
contact.  When  the  armistice  was  signed  Detroit  was  ready 
to  turn  out  these  machines  by  the  thousands,  at  a  unit  cost  of 
less  than  that  of  a  shell  for  a  sixteen-inch  gun,  and  thus  darken 
the  heavens  over  Germany  with  these  engines  of  death.  They 
were  never  used.  But  the  next  war  will  begin  where  this  war 
leaves  off!!  The  end  of  human  ingenuity  for  devising  methods 
and  machinery  for  destruction  has  not  yet  been  reached. 
Another  great  war  will  wipe  out  civilisation. 

There  must  not  be  another  zvar!  Impossible  you  say!  In 
a  world  of  moral  order  nothing  is  impossible  which  ought  to  he. 

Happily  American  history  offers  a  precedent  for  the  sane 
settlement  of  international  difficulties.  It  was  after  the  Civil 
War  in  1865  that  Great  Britain  began  taking  Hberties  with 
American  shipping.  Vigorous  diplomatic  protests  on  the  part 
of  the  state  department  seemed  of  no  avail.  Feeling  ran  high. 
It  looked  as  though  there  might  be  a  clash.  Then  those  two 
great  civilized  nations  realized  the  foolishness  of  resorting  to 
war  for  the  settlement  of  their  difficulties.  They  decided  to 
refer  the  matter  to  a  court  of  arbitration.  They  got  together 
a  jury.    Each  side  presented  its  case.    The  jury  brought  in  its 


24  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

verdict  and  advised  Johnny  Bull  to  sit  down  quietly  and  draw 
his  check  for  $17,000,000.  Johnny  Bull  smiled  and  drew  his 
check  and  we've  been  better  friends  ever  since. 

Again  not  so  many  years  ago  trouble  arose  over  the  seal 
fisheries  off  the  coast  of  Alaska,  and  again  heated  diplomatic 
exchanges  brought  us  to  the  verge  of  an  outbreak.  Again  a 
court  of  arbitration  was  summoned  and  both  sides  of  the  case 
presented.  The  jury  brought  in  its  verdict  and  advised  Uncle 
Sam  to  sit  down  quietly  and  write  his  check  to  the  order  of 
Great  Britain  for  $7,000,000.  Uncle  Sam  smiled  and  drew 
his  check  and  we've  been  greater  friends  ever  since.  War  must 
be  outlawed  if  civilization  is  to  endure. 

What  is  needed  is  a  new  world  psychology,  built  up  on  the 
fundamental  thesis  that  there  need  not  be — there  must  not  be 
war.  To  give  effectiveness  to  this  fundamental  social  creed 
we  need  a  new  piece  of  social  machinery  which  shall  bring 
order  out  of  chaos  in  the  field  of  national  relationships. 

It  was  with  this  dual  conviction  that  the  representatives  of 
the  victorious  allied  nations  came  together  at  Versailles  for  the 
peace  conference.  Other  peace  conferences  had  been  tables  of 
compromise.  This  was  to  be  characterized  by  the  declaration 
of  great  principles.  At  the  opening  session  of  the  conference 
a  resolution  was  unanimously  adopted  to  the  effect  that  the 
formation  of  a  League  of  Nations  was  absolutely  fundamental 
to  any  peace  treaty  which  could  give  promise  of  permanent 
peace.  A  committee  was  appointed  to  draft  a  covenant  for 
such  a  league.  February  14,  1919,  this  committee  made  its 
report.  The  proposed  covenant  was  published  and  submitted 
to  the  world  for  discussion  and  criticism.  As  a  result  of  this 
criticism  changes  were  made  in  the  original  draft  and  the  final 
report  of  the  committee  was  presented  before  a  plenary  session 
of  the  peace  conference  on  April  28,  1919,  and  unanimously 
adopted.  This  session  was  composed  of  eighty- four  men 
representing  thirty-two  nations  and  a  constituency  of 
1,200,000,000  people. 

Out  of  the  conference  has  come  a  covenant  worthy  of  the 
moral  purposes  that  won  the  war.  Time  will  not  permit  at 
this  late  hour  any  exposition  of  its  salient  features.  Read  the 
covenant   for  yourself.     Do  not  take  your  opinions  second 


THE    LEAGUE    OF    NATIONS  25 

hand.  Do  your  own  thinking,  and  see  that  your  representatives 
in  the  United  States  Senate  understand  your  conclusions. 
This  is  the  greatest  pubhc  document  since  the  declaration  of 
independence.  It  is  the  recognition  of  the  essential  inter- 
dependence of  all  independent  national  units.  This  covenant 
for  a  League  of  Nations  makes  peace  the  concern  of  the  whole 
league;  places  the  common  good  above  the  selfish  interest  of 
any  state;  makes  force  the  handmaiden  of  justice  and  makes 
justice  to  all  nations  the  world's  first  article  of  political  faith. 

The  League  of  Nations  stands  or  falls  dependent  upon  the 
attitude  of  the  United  States.  This  is  the  conviction  of  those 
most  intimate  with  world  conditions.  America  now  holds  the 
moral  leadership  of  the  world.  Shall  she  refuse  to  accept  the 
responsibilities  incumbent  upon  such  a  position?  To  do  less 
than  our  best  in  the  face  of  present  world  need  and  world 
opportunities  would  be  nothing  short  of  moral  treason. 
America  shall  never  be  a  "slacker  nation." 

What  then  of  public  opinion  in  the  United  States?  The 
following  facts  are  significant.  Correspondence  with  over 
7,000  labor  leaders  from  all  sections  of  the  country  has  yet  to 
uncover  the  first  antagonistic  note.  Labor  is  solidly  behind  the 
League  of  Nations* 

The  farmer  and  organized  argricultural  interests  are 
behind  the  League  of  Nations.  Every  great  national  organiza- 
tion of  farmers  has  gone  on  record  in  support  of  the  League 
of  Nations — The  National  Grange,  National  Farmers'  Union, 
National  Society  of  Equity,  Farmers'  National  Congress,  Non- 
partisan League,  National  Federation  of  Gleaners,  National 
Board  of  Farm  Organizations.  A  recent  poll  of  the  agricul- 
tural press  shows  only  one  out  of  ninety-nine  replying  against 
ratification  of  the  proposed  covenant. 

The  women's  organizations  are  behind  the  League  of 
Nations.  Why  not?  The  mothers  of  the  world  pay  the 
heaviest  price  of  war. 

The  leaders  of  thought  are  behind  the  League  of  Nations — 
the  National  Educational  Association,  the  Religious  Educa- 
tional Association,  and  great  outstanding  individual  leaders 

•Since  the  above  statement  by  Professor  Campbell,  the  American  Federation  of 
Labor,  in  session  at  Atlantic  City,  voted  on  June  20th  as  follows:  29,750  for  and  420 
against  the  ratification  of  the  League  of  Nations'  Covenant  as  a  part  of  the  Peace  Treaty. 


26  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

such  as  Professor  Giddings,  who  says,  "In  a  federation  of 
nations  desiring  peace  and  adequately  organized  to  prevent 
war  rests  our  hope  for  the  further  material  and  moral  progress 
of  mankind." 

"What  of  the  United  States  Senate?"  some  one  asks.  The 
Senate  will  ratify  the  covenant  for  the  League  of  Nations  be- 
cause the  great  heart  of  the  common  folk  demands  it.  Busi- 
ness interests  and  the  pressure  of  reconstruction  projects  fore- 
doom to  failure  any  partisan  or  personal  motives  which  may 
attempt  to  block  the  way.  See  that  your  Senators  understand 
clearly  how  you  and  your  neighbors  feel  on  this  great  issue. 

"The  dream  of  an  idealist" — yes,  so  has  been  everything 
of  real  worth  in  moral  progress.  History  and  personal  ob- 
servation uphold  the  fact  that  the  idealist  "who  dreams  on  a 
full  mind  is  the  most  practical  of  men."  Such  have  been  the 
idealists  who  have  framed  this  covenant.  Such  will  coming 
generations  acclaim  them.  Let  us  help  each  in  our  way  to 
make  their  dream  a  fact. 

Peace  rests  on  justice,  justice  rests  upon  law,  law  rests 
upon  organization.  The  League  of  Nations  is  the  essential 
foundation  in  world  machinery  if  we  would  have  the  crowning 
desire  of  a  war- weary  world-peace. 


II.     COMMUNITY  SERVICE 


A  Creed  and  a  Crusade 

The  Practice  of  Citizenship 

Community  Organization  for  Community  Service 

Social  Reconstruction  in  the  South 

The  Proper  Use  of  Leisure  Time 


A  CREED  AND  A  CRUSADE 

We  Believe: 

1.  That  all  men  are  created — not  equal,  but  with 
equal  rights  to  health,  justice,  fellowship,  and  happiness. 

2.  That  Jesus  is  the  supreme  interpreter  of  the  prin- 
ciples that  should  govern  human  society. 

f 

3.  That  poverty  should  be  abolished  by  vocational 

training  of  every  child,  by  universal  health  inspection 
and  training,  and  by  preventing  the  reproduction  of  the 
unfit. 

4.  That  crime  should  be  prevented  by  removing  the 
causes  of  fear  and  hate,  and  by  providing  adequate  moral 
training  in  childhood. 

5.  That  disease  is  an  unnecessary  evil  that  should 
be  prevented. 

6.  That  health  is  the  basis  of  happiness  and  pros- 
perity, and  should  be  the  first  duty  of  the  home,  of  the 
school,  of  the  church,  and  of  the  government. 

7.  That  the  death  of  children  is  the  defeat  of  God's 
purpose,  and  that  their  health — physical,  mental,  and 
moral — should  be  a  primary  function  and  responsibility 
of  the  church. 

8.  That  the  promotion  of  the  health  of  the  pupils 
and  of  the  community  should  be  to  the  school  of  corre- 
sponding interest  and  obligation  with  instruction. 

9.  That  the  essential  and  first  work  of  the  medical 
profession  is  the  conservation,  not  the  correction,  of 
health ;  and  that  the  physician  should  be  paid  for  pre- 
venting disease  rather  than  for  treating  it. 

10.  That  the  home  is  the  supreme  institution  of 
civilization,  and  its  welfare  and  sanctity  must  be  safe- 
guarded a1)ove  every  other  possession  of  human  society. 


1 1 .  That  motherhood  is  the  most  sacred  function  in 
human  life,  and  that  mothers  everywhere  are  entitled  to 
the  finest  chivalry  that  can  be  paid  them. 

12.  That  the  supreme  object  of  the  government,  of 
industry,  of  education,  of  religion,  and  of  the  individual 
should  be  the  conservation  of  human  life  and  happiness. 

13.  That  the  time  has  come  when  the  most  destructive 
war  in  history  should  be  followed  by  a  world-wide 
crusade  for  the  conservation  of  human  life  and  happiness. 

And  We  Call 

on  every  American  who  believes  in  the  ultimate  achieve- 
ment of  brotherhood  to  enlist  with  us  that  health,  justice, 
and  good-will  may  be  secured  for  the  individual,  for  the 
nation,  and  for  the  world. 


COMRADES 

(Sung  to  the  tune  of  "Scots  Who  Hae  Wi'  Wallace  Bled) 

Comrades  of  the  Son  of  God, 
Heirs  of  Martyrs'  faith  and  blood, 
Who  will  work  for  brotherhood, 
Working  with  our  Lord? 

He  that  loves  reality, 
He  that  honors  purity, 
He  that  lives  true  chivalry, 
*Lift  your  pledge  to  God ! 


Hear  the  mothers'  bitter  cry ; 
See  the  children  fade  and  die; 
Millions  in  the  grave  now  lie. 
Whom  God  meant  should  live. 

Who  will  fight  the  fiend  disease? 
Who  will  hate  a  life  of  ease? 
Who  will  seek  his  Lord  to  please? 
♦Lift  your  pledge  to  God ! 


Do  not  balance  life  with  gain ; 
Do  not  hoard  on  others'  pain; 
Make  not  Mothers'  praying  vain : 
While  the  children  die. 

Heaven  hates  our  selfish  gold; 
Human  life  has  worth  untold ; 
Who  will  faith  in  man  uphold? 
*Lift  your  pledge  to  God ! 


Brothers  still  are  stunned  by  fears ; 
Mothers  toiling,  sick  with  tears ; 
Orphans  hope  for  better  years ; 
God's  own  justice  comes! 

Who  will  fight  for  liberty? 
Who  will  claim  equality? 
Who  will  live  fraternity? 
*Lift  your  pledge  to  God ! 


Come,  ye  brothers,  hear  the  call, 
Jew  and  Gentile,  races  all. 
Every  one  both  great  and  small, 
Work  for  Brotherhood  I 

This  shall  be  our  Battle  song. 
This,  our  banner,  leads  us  on, 
As  one  loyal  mighty  throng, 
"World-wide  Brotherhood !" 


•Pledges  in  audience  to  be  indicated  by  liftings  the  right  hand  while  singing  this  line. 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CITIZENSHIP 

HENRY  E.  JACKSON,  A.   M.,  U.  S.  BUREAU  OF  EDUCATION 

To  achieve  "freemen's  citizenship"  ;  to  restore  and  preserve 
government  "of  the  people,  by  the  people,  and  for  the  people" ; 
to  develop  small  communities  into  little  democracies  with 
schoolhouses  for  their  capitols ;  to  organize  communities  on  the 
basis  of  citizenship  alone ;  to  put  human  rights  above  property 
rights,  as  our  boys  in  the  trenches  of  France  did;  to  apply 
ethical  standards  to  politics  and  economics;  to  enlarge  the 
average  man's  opportunities  and  his  capacity  to  appreciate 
them ;  to  make  social,  political,  and  economic  conditions  to  be 
of  such  a  sort  that  all  citizens,  both  native  and  foreign  born, 
when  speaking  of  the  United  States,  may  say  "my  country" 
and  mean  what  they  say;  that  they  may  say  it  not  only  with 
honesty  but  with  such  a  degree  of  enthusiasm  as  to  be  wiUing 
to  put  the  interests  of  "my  country"  above  the  interests  of 
"myself" — nothing  less  than  this,  as  I  understand  it,  is  the 
ultimate  purpose  of  the  community  center  movement.  It  is  a 
movement  in  constructive  democracy. 

The  war  has  clothed  this  movement  with  a  fresh  interest 
and  a  new  significance.  The  fundamental  challenge  which  the 
war  has  made  to  all  thoughtful  people  is  the  need  of  organizing 
human  life  on  juster  and  saner  lines  in  the  construction  of  a 
better  sort  of  world.  The  German  Reformation  gave  us  a 
start  towards  religious  freedom ;  the  French  Revolution  gave 
us  a  start  towards  political  freedom ;  the  present  world  tragedy 
is  giving  us  a  still  bigger  start  towards  economic  freedom.  In 
our  attempt  to  meet  the  opportunity  with  which  the  war's 
challenge  confronts  us,  we  have  already  discovered  that  no 
superficial  remedy  will  answer  because  the  disease  lies  too  deep. 
We  have  discovered  the  futility  of  attempting  to  purify  the 
water  in  a  well  by  painting  the  pump.  We  must  go  deeper  for 
our  remedy. 

It  is  my  purpose  to  give  a  bird's-eye  view  of  some  of  the 
community  uses  of  the  schoolhouse,  as  means  for  achieving 
democracy's  aims.  For  this  instrument  ready  made  to  our 
hand  is  most  available  for  the  practice  of  citizenship.     Like 


32  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

all  great  discoveries  the  community  use  of  the  schoolhouse 
grew  out  of  a  conscious  and  profound  need.  Rauschenbusch 
calls  the  appropriation  of  the  schoolhouse  for  more  varied 
purposes  a  master  stroke  of  the  new  democracy.  It  is  the  only 
democratic  institution  existing  in  America,  non-sectarian,  non- 
partisan, and  non-exclusive.  It  furnishes  the  only  platform  on 
which  all  the  people  can  meet.  It  is  our  foremost  industry 
from  whatever  standpoint  it  is  regarded,  with  its  22,000,000 
girls  and  boys,  600,000  school  teachers,  277,000  school  build- 
ings, $1,347,000,000  invested  in  property,  and  $750,000,000 
annually  spent  for  its  support.  It  is  the  most  American  insti- 
tution, the  greatest  American  invention,  and  the  most  success- 
ful social  enterprise  yet  undertaken  by  any  nation.  Never- 
theless, its  golden  age  lies  before  it,  not  behind  it.  It  is  now 
entering  upon  a  new  era  in  its  already  notable  history,  an  era 
which  will  witness  its  vastly  increased  usefulness  to  our  experi- 
ment in  democracy,  an  experiment  which  depends  for  its 
success  more  on  the  free  public  school  than  upon  any  other 
single  factor. 

In  attempting  to  state  in  brief  a  subject  so  big,  one  must 
needs  have  what  the  poet  Keats  calls  "negative  capabilities." 
He  must  know  what  to  leave  in  the  ink  stand,  what  to  leave 
unsaid.  A  bird's-eye  view  of  the  facts  may  be  had  if  we 
group  them  under  the  use  of  the  schoolhouse  as  a  community 
capitol,  a  community  forum,  and  a  neighborhood  club. 

A  community  CAPITOL 

The  schoolhouse  as  the  community  capitol  obviously  means 
that  it  shall  be  used  as  the  polling  place.  It  ought  to  be  so 
used  for  economic  reasons  alone.  Why  should  we  rent  special 
buildings,  when  we  already  own  schoolhouses  conveniently 
located  in  every  district?  If  voting  precincts  so  far  as  possible 
were  made  indentical  with  school  districts,  if  the  schoolhouses 
were  used  as  polling  places,  if  the  election  machinery  were 
simplified,  and  if  school  teachers  were  employed  as  election 
officers,  because  they  have  the  required  intelligence  and  are 
already  public  officials,  every  state  in  the  Union  would  have 
many  thousands  of  dollars  annually.  But  we  ought  to  use  the 
schoolhouse    as    the    polling    place,    not    only    for    economic 


THE    PRACTICE    OF    CITIZENSHIP  33 

reasons,  which  is  of  the  least  importance,  but  especially  for 
the  sake  of  the  ideal  which  the  ballot  box  represents.  It  is 
the  symbol  of  our  membership  in  America.  It  is  a  sacred 
symbol.  During  the  last  campaign  Candidate  Hughes  voted 
in  a  laundry  in  New  York  City,  and  President  Wilson  voted  in 
a  fire  house  in  Princeton.  Barber  shops,  livery  stables,  any 
old  place  is  regarded  good  enough  for  voting  purposes.  Is 
such  a  place  a  fitting  place  in  which  to  exercise  the  highest  duty 
and  function  of  American  citizenship?  The  ballot  box  is  our 
Ark  of  the  Covenant,  and  just  as  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant, 
which  was  the  symbol  of  the  Hebrew  Republic,  was  given  a 
place  in  the  Holy  of  Holies  in  the  national  temple,  so  our  ballot 
box  ought  to  be  given  a  place  befitting  its  importance.  The 
one  fitting  place  for  it  is  the  public  school,  which  is  the  temple 
of  our  democracy. 

The  ballot  box  and  voting  booth  ought  to  be  made  decora- 
tive and  kept  permanently  in  the  schoolhouse,  because  of  the 
permanent  ideal  which  they  embody.  It  would  be  kept  to 
make  vivid  the  function  of  the  school.  "The  walls  of  Sparta 
are  built  of  Spartans,"  sang  an  old  poet.  The  walls  of  America 
are  built  of  Americans,  and  the  public  school  is  the  factory  in 
which  they  are  produced.  The  public  school's  function  is  to 
make  not  merely  good  men  and  women,  but  good  citizens  for 
the  republic.  The  great  need  of  our  American  democracy  is 
that  in  every  school  district  the  public  school  shall  be  developed 
into  a  worthy  university  of  the  people,  which  shall  confer 
citizenship  as  a  degree  upon  those  who  in  this  school  shall 
have  made  themselves  fit  to  receive  it.  As  soon  as  we  put  this 
fact  in  the  foreground,  we  set  in  operation  a  formative  prin- 
ciple whose  effect  on  the  school  will  be  reforming  and  vital- 
izing. Because  we  shall  be  compelled  to  ask  the  further  ques- 
tion, what  kind  of  studies  ought  the  curriculum  to  contain, 
what  kind  of  studies  are  most  worth  while  in  the  process  of 
making  citizens?  The  three  unsettled  questions  which  the 
schools  are  always  debating  are  the  content  of  the  curriculum, 
the  method  of  teaching,  and  business  management.  The  new 
question  concerning  the  use  of  the  schoolhouse  as  the  com- 
munity capitol  will  shed  more  illumination  on  these  three 
problems  than  anything  else  has  yet  done.     It  will  insure  a 


34  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

wise  solution  of  them.  It  will  wed  the  processes  of  the  school 
to  patriotism  and  to  practical  human  needs.  It  will  save  the 
school  from  the  blight  of  professionalism,  which  is'  the  most 
deadly  enemy.  This  fact  can  best  be  stated  in  brief  by  employ- 
ing an  illustration. 

It  has  ever  afforded  much  interesting  speculation  and  much 
amusement  to  ask  and  discuss  the  question  what  would  modern 
educational  experts  have  made  of  Lincoln,  if,  as  a  baby,  he 
had  been  put  in  their  care.  "They  would  have  started  him  on 
sterilized  milk,  clothed  him  in  disinfected  garments,  sent  him 
to  kindergarten  where  he  would  have  learned  to  weave  straw 
mats  and  sing  about  the  'Bluebird  on  the  Branch.'  Then  the 
dentist  would  have  straightened  his  teeth,  the  oculist  would 
have  fitted  him  with  glasses,  and  in  the  primary  grades  he 
would  have  been  taught  by  pictures  and  diagrams  the  differ- 
ence between  a  cow  and  a  pig,  and,  through  nature  study  he 
would  have  learned  that  the  catbird  did  not  lay  kittens.  By 
the  time  he  was  eight  he  would  have  become  a  'young  gentle- 
man' ;  at  ten  he  would  have  known  more  than  the  old  folks 
at  home ;  at  twelve  or  fourteen  he  would  have  taken  up  manual 
training,  and  within  two  years  have  made  a  rolling-pin  and 
tied  it  with  a  blue  ribbon.  In  the  high  school,  at  sixteen, 
where  he  would  have  learned  in  four  years  that  Mars  was 
the  reputed  son  of  Juno,  and  to  recite  a  stanza  from  'The 
Lady  of  the  Lake.'  Then  to  college,  where  he  would  have 
joined  the  Glee  Club  and  a  Greek-letter  fraternity,  smoked 
cigarettes  and  graduated,  and  never  have  done  anybody  any 
harm!  Well,  perhaps,  we  don't  know  and  can't  tell  what 
might  have  been,  but  we  can't  help  feeling  thankful  that 
Lincoln's  training  and  education  were  left  to  Nancy  Hanks — 
and  God." 

To  give  the  ballot  box  an  honored  place  in  the  school  as 
the  symbol  of  its  chief  function,  to  wed  the  school  to  patriot- 
ism, will  keep  its  processes  sane,  and  it  in  turn  will  help  to 
purify  politics.  Our  purpose  is  not  to  bring  politics  into  the 
schools,  but  to  bring  the  schools  into  politics,  and  give  to  them 
the  commanding  influence  in  public  affairs  they  were  designed 
to  exercise. 


THE    PRACTICE    OF    CITIZENSHIP  35 

A  COMMUNITY  FORUM 

The  use  of  the  schoolhouse  as  a  forum  is  the  next  logical 
step  to  take  after  it  has  been  made  the  community  capitol.  In 
every  state  constitution  provision  has  been  made  for  a  capitol 
building,  in  which  the  representatives  of  the  people  can  meet  to 
debate  public  questions  and  vote  on  public  policies,  but  the 
only  place  they  provide,  in  which  the  people  themselves  may 
meet,  is  "in  a  peaceable  manner."  The  humor  of  this  omission 
would  be  refreshing,  if  it  were  not  so  serious.  "A  popular 
government  without  popular  information  or  the  means  of 
acquiring  it,"  said  Madison,  "is  but  a  prologue  to  a  farce  or  a 
tragedy,  or  perhaps  both.  Knowledge  will  forever  govern 
ignorance ;  and  a  people  who  mean  to  be  their  own  governors 
must  arm  themselves  with  the  power  which  knowledge  gives." 
We  have  adopted  universal  manhood  suffrage  in  America. 
This  may  have  been  a  blunder  or  it  may  not.  At  any  rate  it 
is  a  fact  and  nothing  is  so  convincing  as  a  fact.  Inasmuch 
as  there  has  been  placed  in  the  hands  of  average  men,  and 
many  average  women,  the  ballot  through  which  public  policies 
are  determined  and  public  officials  elected,  it  is  of  primary 
importance  that  a  means  be  provided  for  the  discussion  of 
public  questions  so  that  they  may  educate  themselves  by  going 
to  school  to  one  another  and  equip  themselves  to  vote  intelli- 
gently. "For  no  man  has  a  right  to  take  part  in  governing 
others  who  has  not  the  intelligence  or  moral  capacity  to  govern 
himself."  This  is  the  practical  and  philosophical  ground  on 
which  the  necessity  for  a  community  forum  rests.  It  is  an 
open  meeting,  conducted  by  citizens  themselves,  for  the  dis- 
cussion of  social,  political,  economic,  or  any  other  questions 
which  concern  the  common  welfare. 

"There  are  two  ways  to  govern  a  community,"  said  Lord 
Macauley  in  the  British  Parliament,  "one  is  by  the  sword,  the 
other  is  by  public  opinion."  Ours  is  a  government  by  public 
opinion.  It  is  obvious  that  the  welfare  of  a  democracy  re- 
quires that  public  opinion  be  informed  and  educated.  The 
greatest  danger  to  a  democracy  is  that  the  forces  which  control 
public  opinion  should  be  corrupted  at  their  source.  The  pulpit 
and  press  are  moulders  of  public  opinion,  but  they  are  no 
longer  dependable.    We  must  establish  public  free  forums  un- 


36  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

dominated  by  private  interests.  If  it  is  right  for  the  state  to 
spend  money  to  provide  polling  places,  it  is  just  as  right  and 
even  more  necessary  for  the  state  to  spend  money  for  forums 
in  which  citizens  may  fit  themselves  to  vote  intelligently.  In 
his  remarkable  book,  "Physics  and  Politics,"  Walter  Bagehot 
devotes  a  chapter  to  "Government  by  Discussion,"  in  which  he 
convincingly  demonstrates  its  essential  value  to  all  free  gov- 
ernments. 

This  being  the  nature  and  purposes  of  the  forum,  it  follows 
that  its  basic  principle  must  be  freedom  of  thought  and  free- 
dom in  its  expression.  The  forum  is  organized  on  the  basis 
of  difference,  not  agreement.  It  aims  not  at  uniformity  but 
at  unity.  It  is  not  only  a  stupid  world  where  all  think  alike, 
but  there  can  be  little  or  no  progress  if  we  listen  only  to  those 
with  whom  we  agree.  It  is  significant  that  our  word  mis- 
understanding has  become  a  synonym  for  quarrels,  whereas 
most  of  our  quarrels  would  be  found  to  involve  not  a  funda- 
mental difference,  but  just  a  failure  to  understand  each  other. 

Inasmuch  as  men  who  do  not  agree  with  each  other  have 
to  work  with  each  other  in  life's  activities,  it  is  obviously  im- 
portant that  they  should  try  to  understand  each  other.  The 
Christian  ought  to  understand  the  agnostic,  and  the  agnostic 
the  Christian ;  the  Roman  Catholic  the  Protestant,  and  the 
Protestant  the  Roman  Catholic;  the  Democrat  the  Republican, 
and  the  Republican  the  Democrat;  the  capitalist  the  laborer, 
and  the  laborer  the  capitalist.  These  classes  usually  associate 
only  with  members  of  their  own  class,  and  read  only  their 
sectarian  or  partisan  newspapers.  They  are  provincially- 
minded.  We  are,  of  course,  under  no  obligation  to  agree  with 
each  other,  but  as  members  of  America  it  is  our  moral  and 
patriotic  duty  to  understand  each  other.  For  there  is  no  hope 
of  peace  and  cooperation  in  a  democracy  unless  men  have  the 
right  to  think  for  themselves,  unless  they  agree  to  disagree 
agreeably,  and  unless  they  try  to  understand  each  other. 

The  forum  furnishes  the  means  for  mutual  understanding. 
It  aims  to  create  public-mindedness.  Its  success  depends  on 
our  ability  to  differ  in  opinion  without  differing  in  feeling. 
There  is  no  way  of  acquiring  this  habit  except  through  practice. 
The  forum  invites  us  to  have  the  courage  to  be  honest,  the 


THE    PRACTICE    OF    CITIZENSHIP  37 

courtesy  to  be  gentlemen  and  to  say  to  our  neighbors,  just 
because  they  are  our  neighbors,  what  Paul  said  to  the  Chris- 
tians of  the  first  century,  "Therefore  putting  aside  lying  let  us 
speak  truth  every  man  with  his  neighbor,  for  we  are  members 
one  of  another." 

Undoubtedly,  where  freedom  of  speech  is  permitted,  there 
is  constant  danger  that  erroneous  opinions  will  be  expressed. 
It  is  one  of  the  risks  which  the  exercise  of  liberty  necessarily 
involves.  But  then  it  is  more  dangerous  for  them  not  to  find 
expression.  Exposure  to  fresh  air  is  the  best  cure  for  mental 
as  well  as  physical  diseases.  Thus  freedom  furnishes  its  own 
antidote  to  this  danger.  Jefferson  well  stated  it  when  he  said, 
"Error  of  opinion  may  be  tolerated  when  reason  is  free  to 
combat  it."  It  is  highly  important  to  understand  that  the 
right  to  preach  truth  is  a  danger  whenever  the  right  to  preach 
error  is  denied.  It  ought  to  be  obvious  that  the  right  of  free 
speech  can  not  be  maintained  and  indeed  does  not  exist  unless 
we  agree  to  grant  complete  freedom  of  speech  without  any 
censorship  whatever,  and  place  our  dependence  on  the  opera- 
tion of  Jefferson's  principle  as  the  civilized  method  of  over- 
coming error.  The  truth  needs  no  apologist  and  no  defender ; 
it  needs  only  a  free  field  and  no  favors.  The  man  who  rejects 
Jefferson's  principle  is  a  skeptic  and  an  atheist.  He  manifestly 
does  not  believe  in  the  power  of  the  very  truth  he  seeks  to 
defend  by  force.    He  has  no  confidence  in  the  God  of  Truth. 

It  may  frequently  happen  that  the  free  discussion  of  vital 
questions  will  lead  to  disturbance.  In  an  open  forum,  held  on 
a  certain  Sunday,  many  centuries  ago,  in  the  village  of 
Nazareth,  where  laymen  were  permitted  to  speak,  a  young 
carpenter  made  some  remarks  on  social  and  economic  justice. 
The  speech  caused  a  disturbance ;  indeed,  the  meeting  became 
a  mob  and  this  workingman  almost  lost  his  life.  But  there  is 
no  man,  who  is  acquainted  with  history,  and  certainly  no 
Christian,  who  regrets  that  the  synagogue  was  organized  as  a 
forum,  and  that  this  particular  speech  was  made  on  this 
particular  occasion.  For  the  speaker's  name  was  Jesus,  and 
the  speech  was  his  inaugural  address  in  a  public  career  more 
helpful  to  the  world  than  that  of  any  other  man.  If  there  are 
any  who  do  not  wish  disturbance  there  is  only  one  place,  so 


38  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

far  as  I  know,  where  they  can  be  assured  of  quiet.  It  is  the 
graveyard.  Wherever  there  is  life,  there  is  growth,  and 
growth  means  disturbance,  especially  if  it  is  growth  towards 
democracy  and  towards  a  saner  and  juster  social  order. 

A  neighborhood  club 

When  the  people  have  learned  through  the  use  of  the 
schoolhouse  as  a  polling  place  and  as  a  forum  that  it  belongs 
to  them  and  not  the  school  board,  they  are  then  prepared  to 
inaugurate  its  use  as  a  neighborhood  club.  It  can  not  be  too 
carefully  noted  that  the  community  center  is  not  charity  work 
nor  an  uplift  movement  nor  a  social  settlement.  It  is  organized 
self-help.  It  is  not  a  patronizing  effort  to  give  people  what 
you  think  they  need.  Nor  is  it  the  cowardly  attempt  to  give 
people  what  they  want.  It  is  the  neighborly  desire  to  assist 
people  to  choose  what  they  ought  to  want.  Democracy  is  the 
organization  of  society  on  the  basis  of  friendship,  and  this  is 
the  key  to  the  community  center  ideal. 

When  the  community  use  of  the  schoolhouse  has  been  or- 
ganized democratically  then  we  are  prepared  to  undertake  all 
sorts  of  activities.  Some  of  these  activities  may  be  described 
as  social,  such  as  community  dinners,  musical  festivals,  folk 
singing,  especially  singing,  which  is  the  most  democratic  and 
most  spiritual  of  all  the  arts.  The  object  of  these  activities  is 
to  promote  a  better  acquaintance  and  the  spirit  of  good-will. 
A  friend  said  to  Charles  Lamb,  "Come  here,  I  want  to  intro- 
duce you  to  Mr.  A."  Lamb  replied,  with  his  characteristic 
stammer,  "No,  thank  you."  "Why  not?"  "I  don't  like  him." 
"Don't  like  him?  But  you  don't  know  him?"  "That's  the 
reason  why  I  don't  like  him."  The  community  center  operates 
on  the  conviction  that  antagonisms  among  men  are  destroyed 
by  better  acquaintance. 

Some  of  its  activities  may  be  described  as  recreational,  such 
as  dances,  games,  motion  pictures,  community  dramas,  espe- 
cially the  drama  which  is  "The  ritual  of  the  religion  of 
democracy."  The  object  of  these  activities  is  to  meet  the 
need  for  play  and  the  hunger  for  joy,  a  need  every  day  more 
keenly  felt  under  the  monotonous  grind  of  our  machine  age. 
Aside  from  the  necessary  relief  which  play  brings,  its  moral 


THE    PRACTICE    OF    CITIZENSHIP  39 

and  educational  value  is  as  great  as  that  of  work,  and  some- 
times greater.  The  community  center  proceeds  on  the 
assumption  that  the  playground  is  as  important  as  the  school- 
room, that  play  is  re-creation  as  well  as  recreation,  that  it  is 
needed  by  all  alike,  and  that  the  leisure  problem  is  as  urgent 
as  the  labor  problem. 

Some  of  these  activities  may  be  described  as  educational, 
such  as  courses  of  lectures  on  scientific  and  literary  subjects, 
tlie  Americanization  of  immigrants,  a  branch  library,  a  savings 
bank.  The  object  of  these  activities  is  mutual  aid  in  self- 
development,  which  is  one  of  President  Wilson's  definitions  of 
democracy.  The  community  center  is  guided  by  the  principle 
that  education  is  a  life  process,  that  it  can  be  secured  only 
through  self -activity,  and  that  it  ought  to  be  acquired  not 
apart  from  but  through  one's  daily  vocation.  When  the  people 
of  any  community  perceive  the  formative  principle  that  the 
schoolhouse  belongs  to  them  and  that  education  is  not  limited 
to  book  learning,  then  the  way  is  at  once  opened  to  the  com- 
munity use  of  the  schoolhouse  for  any  kind  of  cooperative 
enterprise  designed  to  meet  human  needs,  provided  it  is  never 
for  profit  but  for  the  common  welfare.  It  is  my  conviction 
that  the  time  is  not  far  distant  when  the  schools  everywhere 
will  be  used  not  only  to  inspire  cooperation  in  buying  and  sell- 
ing the  necessities  of  life,  but  also  to  direct  and  operate  such 
enterprises,  just  as  the  public  schools  are  now  being  used  in 
Alaska,  under  the  guidance  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of 
Education,  with  patriotic  and  economic  results  which  are 
highly  gratifying.  The  use  of  the  schoolhouse  as  a  polling 
place,  a  community  forum,  and  a  neighborhood  club  are  the 
three  chief  activities  which  this  movement  aims  to  promote. 
I  have  stated  them  in  their  logical  order,  but  this  may  not 
always  be  the  chronological  order.  In  our  world  human  pro- 
cesses do  not  move  along  logical  lines,  but  along  lines  of  least 
resistance.  Therefore,  community  center  work  frequently  be- 
gins with  some  simple  social  activity,  and  from  this  evolves 
into  larger  activities.  To  learn  to  play  together  is  sometimes 
a  wise  preparation  for  more  constructive  forms  of  cooperation. 


40  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

The  creation  of  community  centers  for  the  practice  of 
freemen's  citizenship  is  to-day  our  most  urgent  national  need. 
Everywhere  men  and  women  are  divided  into  classes  accord- 
ing to  their  personal  tastes  or  self-interest.  There  are  social 
clubs,  sectarian  divisions,  partisan  groups.  There  are  racial 
antagonisms,  class  hatreds,  deep  social  cleavages  and  mis- 
understandings, dissimilarities  of  mind  and  purpose.  It  is  this 
condition,  this  lack  of  public-mindedness,  this  lack  of  social 
sympathy  and  mutual  understanding,  which  we  have  come  to 
regard  as  a  serious  menace  to  our  experiment  in  democracy, 
and  which  will  guarantee  its  failure  if  unchecked.  Our  present 
urgent  task  is  to  discover  some  means  of  welding  America  into 
a  community.  For,  as  Professor  Giddings  says,  "The  primary 
purpose  of  the  state  is  to  perfect  social  integration."  Social 
integration  can  be  achieved  not  by  physical  but  by  spiritual 
means,  for  a  nation  is  the  will  to  be  one  people.  "The 
Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  within  you."  So  is  the  American 
Republic.  A  nation  is  a  state  of  mind.  How  shall  this  weld- 
ing process  be  effected  ? 

That  man  has  gone  far  towards  finding  a  good  answer  to 
this  question  who  discovers  the  true  function  which  the  public 
school  is  designed  and  equipped  to  perform  in  the  unification 
and  development  of  a  community  life;  when  he  discovers 
that  it  is  the  appropriate  place  for  the  untrammelled  exercise 
of  the  sacred  right  of  manhood  suffrage  in  a  republic;  that 
it  furnishes  the  ideal  platform  for  a  community  forum,  where 
citizens  may  go  to  school  to  one  another  and  freely  discuss  all 
social  and  economic  questions  in  order  to  fit  themselves  for 
the  practice  of  citizenship;  that  it  is  the  logical  social  center 
and  clearing-house  for  all  enterprises  which  concern  the 
common  welfare,  promoting  organized  cooperation,  and  pre- 
venting needless  waste  of  time  and  money  through  burden- 
some overhead  charges  and  duplication  of  social  activities; 
when  one  discovers  these  community  uses  of  the  schoolhouse, 
he  has  made  a  discovery  of  incalculable  value  to  the  progress 
of  American  ideals. 


COMMUNITY    ORGANIZATION  41 


COMMUNITY   ORGANIZATION   FOR   COMMUNITY 

SERVICE 

JAMES  EDWARD  ROGERS 

The  call  for  community  organization  and  for  community 
service  has  been  answered  throughout  this  country.  Perhaps 
the  finest  benefit  from  the  war  has  been  the  development  of  a 
nation-wide  volunteer  service  by  the  entire  people  of  the  com- 
munities. The  war  was  in  good  part  won  not  by  armies  but  by 
nations ;  not  by  soldiers  but  by  civilians.  The  huge  organized 
army  of  civilian  volunteers  that  got  back  of  the  government 
mandates  made  an  early  victory  possible. 

If  we  are  not  to  lapse  back  to  pre-war  condtions,  we  must 
conserve  and  continue  this  splendid  development  in  our 
national  and  communal  life.  We  must  preserve  the  wonderful 
spirit  of  cooperation  and  sacrifice.  We  must  not  lose  this 
potential  force  for  great  good  if  we  are  to  meet  wisely  the 
perplexing  problems  of  the  future.  The  need  for  patriotism 
in  peace  is  even  greater  than  the  need  for  patriotism  in  war. 

There  is  a  universal  demand  for  community  organization. 
Universities  and  colleges  are  creating  departments  of  com- 
munity organization;  churches  and  societies  are  talking  in 
terms  of  community  service ;  schools  and  social  agencies  are 
advocating  the  wider  use  of  public  facilities.  Chambers  of 
Commerce,  Boards  of  Trade,  Rotary  Clubs,  Women's  Clubs, 
Labor  Unions,  Fraternal  Organizations,  etc.,  are  thinking  in 
terms  of  service.  Besides  being  organized  for  a  specific  pur- 
pose, each  of  these  organizations  can  be  utilized  for  civic  wel- 
fare ;  and,  organized  together,  they  can  do  much  to  make  our 
towns  and  cities  decent  places  to  live  in  as  well  as  to  work  in. 
All  of  these  agencies  have  a  civic  value  that  can  be  utilized  in 
the  common  interest  of  the  whole  community. 

One  of  the  finest  "Win  the  War"  agencies  created  by  the 
government  is  War  Camp  Community  Service.  An  agency, 
not  an  organization,  established  by  the  War  and  Navy  Depart- 
ments to  coordinate,  mobilize,  and  stimulate  local  communities 
— the  people  and  organizations — to  surround  the  camps  with 
hospitality,  and  to  create  community  team  work  so  as  to  best 


42  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

serve  the  soldiers.  This  agency  was  to  be  the  community 
itself  forming  a  clearing-house  whereby  the  individuals  and 
organizations  would  work  together  in  an  efficient,  smooth,  and 
unified  manner  for  the  welfare  of  the  camp  and  the  com- 
munity. 

The  achievements  of  this  war  agency  form  one  of  the 
illuminating  pages  in  the  war  record  of  this  country.  The  list 
of  400  different  activities  in  over  600  cities  is  a  revelation  in 
concrete  achievement  as  to  what  communities  have  done  and 
can  do  with  a  unified  program  and  common  effort.  Through 
community  executive  boards  and  central  councils,  composed  of 
leading  men  and  women,  and  operating  through  existing  or- 
ganizations, a  well-rounded  program  of  community  hospitality, 
education,  information,,  recreation,  and  service  was  readily 
accomplished. 

Some  of  the  experiences  of  this  agency,  with  a  large  stafif 
of  trained  men  and  women  skilled  in  community  service,  are 
worthy  of  permanent  record.  In  the  first  place,  it  was  recog- 
nized that  community  organization  must  be  democratic ;  that 
is,  it  must  be  "of,  by,  and  for  the  people."  Secondly,  it  was 
realized  that  the  community  from  one  point  of  view  was 
divided  into  three  parts:  (1  )  The  community  organization  as 
seen  in  the  city  government  in  the  city  hall  (city  government 
after  all  is  an  example  of  community  cooperation)  ;  (2)  the 
organized  civic  groups  doing  community  service  for  a  specific 
purpose,  such  as  Boards  of  Trade,  Chambers  of  Commerce, 
Women's  Clubs,  Rotary  Clubs,  Civic  Leagues,  etc.;  (3)  the 
people  themselves — the  unorganized  individuals  to  be  gathered 
into  volunteer  groups  at  the  school  or  the  playground  or  at  the 
block  party.  Any  complete  scheme  must  include  all  three 
groups. 

It  is  apparent  that  any  plan  for  community  organization 
must  necessarily  include  the  active  participation  of  such 
municipal  departments  as  school,  health,  recreation,  and  public 
welfare,  and  also  the  organized  civic  organizations.  In  fact, 
they  will  form  the  basis  for  the  organization  of  community 
team  work.  Through  them  in  large  part  the  community 
program  will  be  functioned  and  decentralised.  However, 
community  organization  must  not  simply  be  a  federation.     It 


COMMUNITY    ORGANIZATION  43 

must  be  that  but  more  than  that ;  otherwise  it  will  suffer  from 
the  weaknesses  of  federation.  Community  organization  must 
have  on  its  executive  committee  and  on  its  central  council 
leading  men  and  women  in  these  civic  groups,  but  it  must  have 
an  entity  of  its  own;  it  must  represent  the  whole  city,  the 
individual — the  man  on  the  street;  it  must  have  power  to 
function  directly  as  well  as  indirectly. 

In  a  way,  a  community  has  longitudinal  and  latitudinal 
lines.  Longitudinal  lines  represent  the  organized  community 
work  being  done  by  the  different  organizations.  The  lati- 
tudinal lines  are  the  civic  interests  that  these  different  organi- 
zations cover,  such  as  commercial,  religious,  fraternal,  athletic, 
women's  clubs,  etc.  That  is,  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  or 
Board  of  Trade  is  a  community  organization  with  a  com- 
munity purpose  organized  for  a  specific  civic  interest — com- 
mercial and  business.  This  is  its  primary  interest,  but  it 
touches  the  other  community  organizations,  for  it  is  interested 
in  good  schools,  playgrounds,  health,  and  morals.  A  Chamber 
of  Commerce,  however,  is  only  one  of  the  longitudinal  lines 
in  a  community.  It  does  not  represent  the  whole  community 
in  all  its  interests.  The  Federation  of  Churches  is  another 
civic  organization  with  a  community  program  to  unite  the 
religious  interests  of  the  whole  community.  However,  it  only 
represents  the  united  religious  community  effort — it  does  not 
represent  the  commercial  or  business  interests.  Women's 
Clubs  represent  a  strong  civic  force.  They  do  not  represent 
the  whole  community,  but  they  do  represent  the  organized 
women  power  in  that  community  for  civic  effort.  The 
fraternal  orders  represent  similarly  limited  interests.  Real 
community  organization  would  be  the  pooling  by  these  organi- 
zations of  their  general  civic  interests  into  a  common  com- 
munity interest,  united  in  action  and  program.  All  these  or- 
ganizations touch  much  common  ground,  such  as  community 
singing,  community  hospitality,  community  pageants,  com- 
munity information,  community  athletics,  community  good- 
will. They  need  "a  clearing-house"  by  which  they  can  express 
a  common  "esprit  de  corps"  in  solving  these  mutual  problems. 

There  is  one  big  essential  community  subject  that  there 
is  no  organization  to  handle — namely,  the  use  of  the  leisure 


44  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

time  of  all  the  people.  People  seek  happiness.  They  ask  for 
shorter  hours  and  higher  wages  for  one  purpose — for  more 
leisure  and  the  means  to  enjoy  it.  The  Declaration  of 
Independence  recognized  wisely  three  inalienable  rights,  "the 
right  to  life,  to  liberty,  and  to  the  pursuit  of  happiness." 
There  are  organizations  for  the  first  two,  but  there  is  need  for 
an  organization  that  will  turn  leisure  from  a  liability  into  an 
asset.  Many  of  our  community  ills  and  evils  that  demand 
money  and  effort  to  overcome  them,  come  from  the  misuse 
of  this  leisure  time  which  is  increasing.  Most  of  the  good 
things  in  our  community  life  that  stand  for  order  and  happi- 
ness come  from  the  right  use  of  this  free  time.  Multiplying 
the  number  of  inhabitants  of  a  community  by  eight  hours  gives 
an  enormous  number  of  free  hours  to  use  or  abuse.  There  is 
here  an  immense  problem  for  leadership  and  organization. 

The  schools  and  playgrounds  as  neighborhood  centers  offer 
one  of  the  finest  mediums  to  organize  the  great  mass  of  un- 
attached volunteers.  Any  complete  community  program,  there- 
fore, will  include  an  intensive  development  of  the  schoolhouse 
and  the  playgrounds  as  a  community  neighborhood  center 
where  the  people  may  meet,  organize,  discuss,  and  do  com- 
munity service. 

To  analyze  community  organization  we  must  discover  the 
community  motives  that  prompt  community  organizations.  A 
community  like  an  individual  is  moved  by  many  motives,  but 
there  are  three  dominant  motives  that  touch  all.  First,  there 
is  the  motive  of  self-preservation.  So  citizens  organize  a  city 
government  for  self-protection.  City  government  is  one  form 
of  community  organization  to  take  care  of  this  motive  of  self- 
preservation.  So  we  have  a  police,  fire,  health,  education,  and 
other  governmental  departments  as  a  mutual  protective  com- 
munity organization.  The  people  must  get  together.  They 
must  have  a  clearing-house,  so  we  have  the  city  hall  as  a  center. 
They  must  have  leadership,  so  they  have  the  city  officials.  But 
most  of  the  time  of  people  is  concerned  with  the  second  and 
third  great  community  motives  that  control  the  lives  of  every 
citizen. 

The  second  great  community  motive  is  the  production  or 
occupational  motive.     So  we  have  community  organization. 


COMMUNITY   ORGANIZATION  45 

such  as  Boards  of  Trade,  Manufacturers'  Associations,  Labor 
Unions,  Chambers  of  Commerce,  etc.  The  interest  of  an 
individual  is  in  the  job,  the  profession,  the  plant.  Cities  are 
places  where  things  are  made  and  men  work. 

The  third  and  other  big  motive  that  dominates  the  time 
and  interest  of  individuals  and  communities  is  the  motive  for 
improvement — for  individual  culture  and  public  welfare. 
Here  is  where  the  reason  for  the  "pursuit  of  happiness"  is 
found.  So  we  have  civic  organizations,  such  as  Women's 
Clubs,  Fraternal  Orders,  Social  and  Philanthropic  Agencies. 
As  the  city  government  takes  care  of  the  first  motive  of  self- 
preservation  and  represents  the  clearing-house  in  this,  and  as 
the  Chamber  of  Commerce  and  Labor  Council  takes  care  of 
the  second  motive  of  production,  so  there  is  a  need  of  a  clear- 
ing-house to  coordinate  and  mobilize  all  efforts  of  individuals 
and  organizations  that  pertain  to  the  third  motive  of  com- 
munity welfare.  Such  a  clearing-house  should  not  be  a 
parallel  existing  civic  organization,  but  an  agency  composed  of 
the  whole  community — not  asking  service  but  giving  service. 
This  point  is  important.  It  is  not  a  round-table  organization 
to  get  together  and  centralize  service,  but  to  decentralize 
service. 

Therefore,  a  community  organization  must  include  (1) 
The  organized  city  government  efforts  that  touch  the  public 
welfare  along  lines  of  the  third  motive;  (2)  the  organized 
community  civic  groups;  (3)  the  mass  of  the  people,  through 
the  school  playground,  neighborhood,  social  unit  groups,  etc. 
This  total  effort  is  the  community  itself.  It  is  "of,  for,  and 
by"  the  community. 

Democracy,  however,  connotes  leadership.  Democracy  in 
order  not  to  be  anarchy — mob  rule — must  have  intelligent 
leadership  and  a  common  program.  Otherwise  it  means 
anarchy  and  drift  instead  of  civic  cooperation  and  mastery. 
Our  community  school  program  does  not  run  itself.  We  have 
schools,  social  center  departments  with  skilled  paid  leaders  in 
charge.  Chambers  of  Commerce  do  not  run  themselves,  but 
have  boards  of  directors  and  secretaries.  In  our  own  city 
government  we  are  asking  for  highly  trained  city  managers. 
Our   democratic   social   unit   experiments   are   conducted   by 


46  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

funds  and  paid  leaders.  Community  organization  predicates 
a  program  and  a  program  predicates  administration  and  ad- 
ministration means  some  one  on  the  job  all  the  time. 

Program,  propaganda,  and  good-will  alone  will  not  con- 
tinue community  organization  or  give  community  service. 
Too  many  community  efforts  have  been  started,  but  have  died 
early  deaths  because  no  one  was  on  the  job  to  carry  the 
program  through  to  completion.  The  need  for  the  highest 
type  of  leadership  is  great  in  community  service.  A  man  or 
woman  who  is  not  so  much  the  community  leader  as  the 
community  servant  should  be  at  work  continually,  suggesting, 
helping,  and  serving.  Such  a  man  would  be  a  civic  bishop 
or  a  spiritual  mayor.  He  is  the  man  who  would  put  unity  into 
community. 

Community  organization  is  simply  a  league  of  folks.  The 
spirit  should  be  "get-togetherness,"  just  folks  coming  together 
to  help  and  understand  each  other  and  meet  common  problems. 
There  is  need  for  this  coming  together  because  our  com- 
munities will  face  in  the  next  generation  big  problems  that 
must  be  faced  by  all  as  a  unit.  The  backwash  of  the  war  is 
yet  to  come  and  must  be  largely  faced  by  the  communities. 
The  home  and  the  neighborhood  may  meet  personal  social  in- 
terests, but  it  is  in  the  community  that  the  individual  expresses 
his  civic,  his  occupational,  and  his  patriotic  relationships. 

Practically  every  organization  in  a  community  next  to  a 
camp  was  interested  in  soldiers  and  was  ready  to  serve  them, 
so  that  there  was  need  for  a  clearing-house  by  which  every 
individual  and  organization  could  efficiently  express  its 
hospitality  and  good-will.  So  the  city  government  and  the 
different  civic  groups  and  volunteers  were  brought  together 
through  executive  boards  and  community  councils  with  repre- 
sentative men  and  women  who  made  it  possible  for  the  whole 
community  to  function  as  a  unit.  Hence  a  common  community 
program  was  fostered.  The  chamber  of  commerce,  the 
churches,  the  schools,  the  fraternal  organizations,  women's 
clubs,  the  libraries,  and  all  other  organizations  were  asked  to 
take  the  part  in  the  program  that  they  could  best  do.  Then  the 
group  did  those  things  that  concerned  all,  such  as  community 
sings,  community  information,  community  girls'  work,  com- 


COMMUNITY    ORGANIZATION  47 

munity  hospitality,  community  pageants,  community  parades, 
etc.  In  this  way  friction,  overlapping,  and  duplication  were 
avoided. 

War  Camp  Community  Service  has  demonstrated  that 
there  is  no  universal  formula  for  community  organization. 
Each  community  must  develop  its  own  form  of  organization 
and  service.  There  is  no  single  agency  that  can  settle  all  of 
the  community  problems.  The  bringing  together  of  all  groups 
and  interests  that  pertain  to  caring  for  the  third  community 
motive,  namely,  for  individual  and  community  welfare,  at  a 
round  table,  with  good-will,  a  common  program,  a  recognition 
of  each  one's  part  in  the  program,  a  mutual  respect  and  under- 
standing is  the  beginning  for  real  community  service.  It 
recognizes  the  principle  that  no  one  of  the  existing  civic  or- 
ganizations in  a  community  can  handle  the  whole  program, 
but  an  agency  in  which  these  groups  play  a  large  part  can  at 
least  be  the  start  toward  common  effort. 

Community  organization  is  largely  a  matter  of  the  spirit; 
it  is  pyschological — an  attitude  of  mind.  It  recognizes  the 
fact  that  a  city  is  not  a  place  of  streets,  buildings,  and  factories, 
but  rather  a  place  of  people — of  folks.  Take  the  folks  away 
and  let  the  streets,  buildings,  factories  remain,  and  you  have 
no  city.  So  community  organization  must  be  based  on  the  fact 
that  a  community  is  a  place  to  live  in  as  well  as  to  work  in. 
Community  organization  is  a  pooling  of  interests  of  civic 
groups  providing  the  use  of  leisure  time  for  the  "pursuit  of 
happiness."  Community  organization  is  a  blend  of  motives 
for  the  common  welfare. 

An  executive  group  of  leading  men  and  women  should  be 
chosen,  men  and  women  who  are  representatives  of  the  whole 
communities,  men  and  women  of  varied  interests  and  walks  of 
life  that  will  care  for  the  general  welfare  rather  than  the  wel- 
fare of  any  particular  civic  group.  Then  a  large  general  com- 
munity council  in  which  men  and  women  prominent  in  civic 
groups,  school  social  centers,  labor  councils,  neighborhood 
associations  will  be  found.  In  this  way,  you  get  the  pooling  of 
all  interests ;  at  the  same  time  you  do  not  split  into  factions  as 
is  liable  in  a  federation. 


48  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

The  three  big  obstacles  to  successful  community  organiza- 
tions are  the  three  old  archenemies:  (1)  The  old  "laissez- 
faire"  conservative,  reactionary  doctrine;  (2)  the  modern 
bolshevik,  who  pleads  for  democracy  that  would  mean  anarchy 
— there  is  great  danger  is  this  second,  because  in  pleading  for 
democracy  they  do  not  recognize  the  need  for  leadership; 
(3)  the  third  obstacle  is  the  personal  pronoun  "I" — egotism 
and  personal  jealousies  do  much  to  prevent  the  successful 
fruition  of  a  community  program.  In  brief,  conservatism, 
faddism,  and  selfishness  can  defeat  community  organization. 
Service,  good-will,  and  sacrifice  are  the  three  winning  graces. 
Community  organization  to  be  successful  must  be  democratic 
— "of,  for,  and  by"  the  people.  It  must  be  an  agency,  not  an 
institution.  It  must  have  a  program  of  service.  It  must  have 
a  public  servant  who  will  carry  such  a  program  of  service  to 
successful  completion. 

Community  organization  for  community  service  along  the 
lines  of  providing  for  the  third  motive  in  community  life 
would  do  much  to  make  the  world  safe.  The  proper  use  of 
leisure  time  by  all  would  mean  rest  rather  than  unrest.  Com- 
munity organization  is  the  best  antidote  for  anarchy.  Leisure 
is  a  right,  as  the  Declaration  of  Independence  guarantees. 
Men  work  for  leisure  and  the  power  to  enjoy  it.  Communities 
must  ofifer  the  means. 

Such  community  service  as  outlined  would  not  be  an  in- 
stitution or  another  paralleling  community  organization,  but 
rather  the  medium  by  which  all  community  agencies,  institu- 
tions, and  schemes  could  act  together.  It  would  prevent  waste, 
overlapping,  and  duplication.  It  is  more  than  a  federation — 
it  means  the  utilization  of  all  efforts  such  as  local  community 
councils,  the  neighborhood  school  center,  the  block  unit  plan, 
etc.  It  means  the  projection  of  community  fetes,  holidays, 
athletics,  sings,  information,  recreation,  etc.  It  is  a  plan  by 
which  all  the  people  individually  and  collectively  can  work 
together  with  a  single  purpose  for  the  good  of  all.  It  includes 
all  ithe  people.  Its  membership  is  every  one.  Its  spirit  is 
democratic.  Its  motto  is  service.  It  means  centralization  of 
purpose  for  the  decentralization  of  service. 


SOCIAL   RECONSTRUCTION  49 

The  call  for  community  organization  and  service  is  heard 
everywhere.  It  must  be  answered  soon  and  concretely.  There 
is  no  "cure  all."  There  is  no  universal  community  organiza- 
tion recipe  that  will  apply  to  every  community.  However, 
War  Camp  Community  Service  has  been  an  agency  that  has 
gone  into  many  communities,  and  has  developed  a  community 
program,  a  community  purpose,  and  a  community  "esprit  de 
corps."  It  has  been  a  means  by  which  communities  have  ex- 
pressed their  hospitality,  good-will,  and  soul.  With  the 
Christian  doctrine  of  service  and  the  democratic  principle  "of, 
by,  and  for  the  people"  community  service  has  achieved  com- 
munity organization. 


SOCIAL  RECONSTRUCTION  IN  THE  SOUTH 

HASTINGS    H.    HART,    D.    D.,    LL.    D.,    DIRECTOR    CHILD    WELFARE, 
RUSSELL  SAGE  FOUNDATION 

The  Southern  States  have  been  profoundly  affected  by  the 
European  war,  and  by  their  participation  in  it.  Great  changes 
have  already  taken  place  in  the  social  and  economic  conditions 
of  the  South,  and  still  greater  changes  are  bound  to  follow  in 
the  reconstructive  processes  of  the  next  few  years. 

In  the  first  place,  the  war  has  affected  tremendously 
economic  conditions.  Great  prosperity  has  resulted  from  the 
high  prices  of  cotton,  tobacco,  horses,  mules,  and  other  farm 
products ;  from  the  expenditure  of  vast  sums  of  government 
money  for  the  building  of  cantonments,  hospitals,  roads,  ships, 
and  for  supplies,  transportation,  and  so  forth  for  the  army; 
from  the  resulting  rise  of  wages  whereby  common  negro 
laborers  have  earned  $3.50  to  $4.50  per  day,  and  untrained 
negro  girls  have  earned  $2.50  per  day  for  manual  labor,  while 
mechanics,  coal  miners,  and  employees  of  steel  works  have 
earned  from  $5  to  $20  per  day;  and  from  the  tremendous 
expansion  of  manufacturing,  coal  mining,  and  iron  mining, 
with  the  resulting  expansion  of  all  kinds  of  mercantile  busi- 
ness. This  prosperity  is  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  the  state 
of  Alabama  is  receiving  from  $40  to  $80  per  month  for  the 
labor  of  convicts  which  formerly  brought  from  $15  to  $35, 


50  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

and  the  state  cotton  mill  at  Speigner,  Ala.,  operated  by  155 
convicts,  produced  last  year  a  net  revenue  of  $227,000,  or 
$1,450  per  convict. 

In  the  second  place,  the  war  has  had  a  marked  effect  upon 
social  conditions,  agencies,  and  institutions.  The  medical, 
physical,  and  psychological  examinations  of  volunteers  and 
selectives  in  the  army  and  navy  made  humiliating  revelations 
as  to  the  prevalence  of  heart  disease,  tuberculosis,  hookworm, 
venereal  diseases,  and  other  preventable  physical  ailments,  to- 
gether with  feeble-mindedness,  epilepsy,  and  illiteracy.  The 
practical  measures  taken  by  the  government  and  voluntary  or- 
ganizations to  overcome  or  mitigate  these  evils  were  a  demon- 
stration to  the  people  of  the  South,  which  is  already  bearing 
fruit  in  the  reorganization  of  state  boards  of  health,  with 
vastly  increased  appropriations,  in  the  building  of  state 
sanatoria  for  tuberculosis  patients,  in  the  enlargement  and  im- 
provement of  hospitals,  in  the  establishment  of  reformatories 
for  women  and  girls,  in  the  development  of  state  and  county 
farm  schools,  and  in  increased  state  appropriations  and  local 
taxes  for  public  schools. 

In  the  third  place,  the  war  has  had  an  amazing  effect  upon 
the  morale  of  the  Southern  people,  which,  I  believe,  has  set 
them  forward  in  their  social  progress  twenty-five  years  at  a 
single  bound.  Their  horizon  has  been  tremendously  widened ; 
their  mental  vision  has  been  sharpened,  and  their  moral  per- 
ceptions quickened.  Their  business  men  think  in  hundreds  of 
thousands,  where  they  used  to  think  in  tens  of  thousands ;  and 
the  heads  of  corporations  and  legislators  think  in  millions, 
where  they  used  to  think  in  hundreds  of  thousands.  Alabama 
is  appropriating  $150,000  annually  for  public  health  instead 
of  $26,000.  Mississippi  is  for  the  first  time  establishing  a 
juvenile  reformatory  on  a  fine  farm  of  2,000  acres  of  land. 
North  Carolina  is  developing,  under  the  leadership  of  its  State 
Board  of  Charities  and  Public  Welfare,  County  Boards  of 
Charities  and  Public  Welfare,  in  which  the  most  progressive 
principles  of  social  work  are  being  applied  to  the  entire  field 
of  philanthropy  and  public  welfare. 


SOCIAL   RECONSTRUCTION  51 

The  economic  progress  of  the  South  is  illustrated  by  the 
increase  in  the  estimated  value  of  all  property  in  the  14  states 
named,  as  follows : 

ESTIMATED  VALUE  OF  ALL  PROPERTY  IN  14  STATES 

1890  (a)  $9,848,000,000 

1900  (a)  . „ 12,381.000,000 

1912  (a)  „ 34,190,000,000 

1918  (b)  _ 52,890,000,000 

ESTIMATED  VALUE  OF  ALL  PROPERTY  PER  CAPITA 

1918(b)  1912(a)  1900(a)  1890(a) 

1.  Oklahoma  $4,208 

2.  West  Virginia  3,420 

3.  Texas  _ 2,686 

4.  Maryland    2,064 

5.  Louisiana    1,996 

6.  Florida    1,921 

7.  Arkansas  1,903 

8.  Alabama    1,571 

9.  Virginia  1,531 

10.  South  Carolina  1,460 

11.  Georgia   . 1,330 

12.  North  CaroKna  1,270 

13.  Tennessee  1,216 

14.  Mississippi    1,096 


$2,475 

$1,027 

$  860 

1,800 

688 

575 

1,679 

762 

942 

1,651 

1,109 

1,041 

1,260 

590 

443 

1,307 

673 

995 

1,120 

461 

403 

964 

424 

412 

1,086 

594 

521 

869 

362 

348 

883 

422 

464 

794 

360 

361 

864 

473 

502 

726 

359 

352 

$  1,195 

$  565 

$  579 

$1,965 

$  1,165 

$1,036 

Total  14  States $  1,852 

The  United  States :^....$  2,643 

From  1890  to  1900  there  was  an  actual  decrease  in  the 
value  of  property  in  the  Southern  States;  but  from  1900  to 
1918  the  value  of  property  in  the  14  Southern  States  increased 
more  than  fourfold,  and  the  value  per  inhabitant  increased  two 
and  a  half  times.  In  Oklahoma  the  total  value  increased 
nearly  ten  fold,  and  the  value  per  inhabitant  increased  more 
than  fourfold. 


(a)  Estimates  of  the  U.  S.  Bureau  of  the  Census,  1913. 

(b)  My  estimate  based  on  rates  of  increase,  1900  to  1912.     This  is  a  conservative 
estimate,  probably  much  lower  in  some  states  than  the  actual  values. 


52 


DISTINGUISHED    SERVICE       CITIZENSHIP 


The  economic  gain  in  the  South  is  illustrated  by  the  follow- 
ing Statement  of 

INCREASE  IN  PER  CAPITA  SAVINGS 


BANKS,   TRUST   COMPANIES   AND   WAR   SAVINGS 

WAR  SAVINGS 

Per  Capita 

Per  Capita 

Percentage 

Per  Capita 

1914 

1918 

Increase 

1918 

United  States 

...$    89.11 

$113.45 

27.3 

$  8.95 

Western  States 

...     38.21 

76.78 

101.1 

10.65 

Pacific    States    

...    122.66 

170.05 

46.9 

10.44 

Middle  West   States... 

...     72.48 

100.97 

39.3 

10.58 

New  England  States... 

...  245.78 

295.93 

20.3 

8t34 

Eastern    States    

...   15725 

174.14 

10.7 

7.57 

Southern  States 

...     18.45 

26.73 

44.9 

Rank 

6.14 

Rank 

Oklahoma  , 

...     10.57 

26.88 

154.3 

1 

7.81 

3 

Mississippi 

...       9.20 

19.29 

108.5 

2 

5.56 

7 

Florida     

...     19.50 

39.20 

101.1 

3 

5.49 

9 

Texas  

...       5.11 

10.10 

97.6 

4 

8.47 

2 

Tennessee  

...     17.37 

28.64 

64.2 

5 

7.68 

4 

Georgia    

...     17.53 

28.14 

60.5 

6 

3.60 

13 

South  Carolina  

...     21.24 

33.49 

57.7 

7 

3.78 

12 

Arkansas  

...       7.20 

11.06 

53.6 

8 

5.56 

8 

Virginia  

...     31.89 

44.89 

41.1 

9 

5.18 

11 

North  Carolina  

...     17.20 

24.24 

40.9 

10 

6.61 

5 

West  Virginia  

...     52.08 

68.92 

32.3 

11 

10.25 

1 

Maryland    

...    113.76 

145.25 

27.7 

12 

5.27 

10 

Louisiana    

...     23.12 
...     13.02 

30.04 
13.73 

25.6 
5.4 

13 
14 

6.03 

3.67 

6 

Alabama    

14 

This  statement  reveals  that  from  1914  to  1918  the  increase 
in  savings  per  capita  was  44.9  per  cent  for  the  Southern  States ; 
39.3  per  cent  for  the  Middle  West  States ;  20.3  for  the  New 
England  States ;  and  only  27.3  per  cent  in  the  whole  United 
States. 

In  internal  revenue  collections,  purchase  of  Liberty  Bonds 
and  War  Savings  Stamps,  the  South  met  its  full  obligation  in 
proportion  to  its  wealth.     Note  the  following: 


Compiled  from  "American  Thrift"  by  Milton  W.  Harrison,  Bulletin  of  the  -•Vmerican 
Institute  of  Banking,  January,  1919. 


SOCIAL   RECONSTRUCTION  53 
STATEMENT  OF  INTERNAL  REVENUE  COLLECTIONS 

PER   ONE   THOUSAND   INHABITANTS 

1918  1916 

Maryland  $  44,337  $  6.448 

West  Virginia ~ _ 33,600  1.508 

North   Carolina   28,230  8,133 

Louisiana  _ 18,655  5,567 

Virginia    16,110  4,351 

Texas    8,696  910 

Florida   8,380  2,033 

Oklahoma    8,210  575 

Alabama    7,984  286 

Tennessee    7,707  1,260 

Georgia    6,477  487 

South    Carolina    5,088  369 

Arkansas    3,520  270 

Mississippi     2,663  161 


Total   14  States $12,000  $2,160 

The  United  States  $35,102  $4560 


BEFORE  THE  EUROPEAN  WAR 

The  South  had  never  recovered  fully  from  the  depression 
caused  by  the  War  Between  the  States.  Cities  like  Richmond, 
Atlanta,  Jacksonville,  Birmingham,  and  Chattanooga  had 
caught  the  modern  spirit  and  taken  on  metropolitan  ways. 
States  like  North  Carolina  and  Alabama  had  developed  im- 
portant manufacturing  and  mining  interests,  but  the  South 
as  a  whole  clung  to  the  notion  that  she  had  been  impoverished 
by  the  Civil  War,  and  was  unable  to  keep  pace  with  the  social 
progress  of  more  prosperous  states. 

Colleges  and  universities  had  a  meager  income.  The 
public  schools,  especially  those  for  negroes,  were  badly  housed, 
poorly  supported,  and  manned  by  ill-trained  teachers.  Hos- 
pitals were  few  and  usually  poorly  equipped,  and  institutions 
for  feeble-minded  and  epileptics  were  entirely  wanting.  Alms- 
houses were  wretched.  Prisoners  were  farmed  out  on  the 
lease  system,  were  ill-fed,  badly  housed,  and  cruelly  treated. 
Good  hospitals  for  the  insane  were  found  in  Virginia,  Ala- 
bama, and  North  CaroHna,  and  a  considerable  number  of  well- 
managed  orphan  asylums  and  homes  for  Confederate  veterans 
testified  to  the  generous  self-sacrifice  of  the  people  of  the  South 
in  the  days  of  their  desperate  poverty. 


54  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

The  public-school  expense  per  capita  of  average  attendance 
was  as  follows : 

For  Salaries  Only  Total  Expense 

Per  Pupil  Per  Pupil 

The  United  States  $  19.90  $  27.85 

South  Atlantic  Division  10.85  13.45 

South  Central  Division  11.71  14.55 

Alabama  10.30  10.65 

Georgia  9.13  10.70 

Mississippi    8.19  10.20 

South   Carolina   6.05  6.93 

The  average  number  of  days'  school  attendance  for  each 
pupil  enrolled  was  as  follows : 

The  United  States  „ 113.0 

South  Atlantic  Division  87.0 

South  Central  Division  81.5 

Georgia   92.5 

South  Carolina  75.4 

Mississippi   74.6 

Alabama   73.6 

The  value  of  school  property  per  pupil  was  as  follows : 

The  United  States  $40.13 

South  Atlantic  Division  12.30 

South  Central  Division  11.30 

Georgia   _ 6.20 

Alabama    7.90 

Mississippi    3.60 

There  was  and  is  a  wide  difference  between  the  educational 
provision  for  white  children  and  colored  children.  For 
example,  the  report  of  the  State  Superintendent  of  Public 
Instruction  in  South  Carolina  for  1916  showed  the  following: 

STATISTICAL  FACTS 

White  Negro  Both  Races 

Children  of  school  age  enrolled.. $    195,112.00  $212,828.00  $   407,940.00 

Value  of  school  property 8,072,000.00  856,800.00  8,928,800.00 

School  property  per  pupil _              41.40  4.03  21.90 

Expended  for  school  purposes 3,484,000.00  403,000.00  3,887,000.00 

Same  for  each  pupil : 

Based  on  enrollment 17.86  1.89  9.53 

Based  on  attendance. 27.38  2.86  14.49 

Average  teacher's  salary  per  year 395.00  116.00      

Housing  conditions  were  generally  bad,  especially  in  the 
rural   districts.      Multitudes   of   negroes   lived    in   one-room 


SOCIAL   RECONSTRUCTION  55 

cottages,  without  windows,  and  practically  without  furniture. 
Comparatively  few  farmers,  white  or  black,  had  comfortable 
homes. 

A  great  part  of  the  farmers  throughout  the  South  depended 
upon  a  single  crop,  cotton  or  tobacco.  Almost  universally 
they  ran  in  debt  for  the  supplies  of  the  current  season,  and  the 
income  from  the  crop  had  to  be  applied  on  debts  already  in- 
curred.   A  crop  failure  meant  well-nigh  hopeless  indebtedness. 

Child  labor  prevailed  extensively  both  in  the  cotton  mills 
and  on  the  farms.  As  was  pointed  out  at  the  National  Con- 
ference of  Charities  in  Atlanta,  in  1903,  "The  illiterate  negro 
sent  his  children  to  school,  but  the  illiterate  white  man  sent  his 
children  to  the  cotton  mill,"  so  that  the  exclusion  of  the  negro 
from  the  cotton  mills  operated  to  promote  his  education. 

Many  orphanages  were  established  by  the  South  by  noble 
generosity  and  self-sacrifice  in  the  days  of  her  deep  poverty. 
A  few  of  these  orphanages  were  well  equipped  and  well  or- 
ganized, but  the  system,  as  a  whole,  was  expensive  and  anti- 
quated. Kentucky  and  Florida  had  discovered  the  adaptability 
of  the  placing-out  methods  for  homeless  children  to  the 
hospitable  spirit  of  the  South,  and  had  developed  strong  and 
efficient  children's  home  societies  with  modern  spirit  and 
methods.  Georgia  and  Mississippi  had  organized  efficient 
societies  of  the  same  sort,  and  other  states  had  made  imperfect 
attempts  at  such  organization.  Juvenile  courts  of  good  stand- 
ing had  been  established  in  Richmond,  Louisville,  Birmingham, 
and  other  cities.  And  juvenile  reformatories  had  been  estab- 
lished in  all  of  the  Southern  States  except  Mississippi.  Most 
of.  these  reformatories  were  imperfectly  organized,  poorly 
equipped,  and  inadequately  manned,  though  a  few  of  them 
were  modern  in  their  spirit  and  equipment. 

State  boards  of  charities  existed  in  Virginia,  North  Caro- 
lina, and  Tennessee,  and  charity  organization  societies  were 
found  in  Richmond,  Atlanta,  New  Orleans,  and  a  few  other 
cities ;  but,  for  the  most  part,  organized  charity  was  wanting. 

The  traditional  poverty  of  the  South  was  made  an  excuse 
for  starvation  appropriations  for  the  existing  state  institutions, 
and,  in  some  states,  for  the  perpetuation  of  the  discredited 
convict  lease  system  for  the  sake  of  its  large  revenue.     For 


56  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

example,  Alabama  had  a  state  debt  of  $9,000,000,  which 
amounted  in  1880  to  $7.37  per  capita,  and  in  1918  to  $4.56  per 
capita;  in  1880  it  amounted  to  2.2  per  cent  of  the  value  of  all 
taxable  property,  while  in  1918  it  amounted  to  only  four- 
tenths  of  1  per  cent,  or  one-fifth  as  much  in  proportion.  Yet 
that  debt  still  stands  as  an  excuse  for  inadequate  maintenance 
appropriations,  meager  salaries  for  public  officers,  and  failure 
to  appropriate  for  necessary  institutional  buildings,  good  roads, 
and  other  public  improvements. 

The  public-school  system  of  the  South  was  very  deficient 
in  schoolhouses,  equipment,  salaries  of  teachers,  and  teacher 
training.  In  1910  the  average  public-school  expenses  for  the 
United  States,  for  each  inhabitant,  were  as  follows : 

Per  Inhabitant 

The  United  States $4.64 

South  Atlantic  Division 2.20 

South  Central  Division 2.42 

Georgia   1.70 

Mississippi    1.52 

Alabama    1.36 

South  Carolina  1.29 

There  was  a  great  deal  of  enterprise,  progress,  and  public 
spirit  in  such  cities  as  Richmond,  Atlanta,  Savannah,  Mobile, 
Memphis,  Chattanooga,  and  New  Orleans;  nevertheless,  the 
general  fact  remains  that  the  South  was  backward  in  the 
development  of  social  work. 

SOCIAL  advancement  DURING  THE  WAR 

During  the  past  four  years  a  marvelous  change  has  taken 
place.  Manufacturing  has  been  greatly  developed  in  Virginia, 
North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  and  Alabama. 
Witness  the  wonderful  expansion  of  the  Tennessee  Coal  and 
Iron  Company,  and  the  development,  almost  overnight,  of 
manufacturing  communities  like  the  shipbuilding  plant  at 
Chickasaw,  near  Mobile. 

The  erection  of  cantonments  and  other  government  work 
have  brought  into  the  South  immense  sums  of  money,  large 
numbers  of  operatives,  and  abundant  employment  for  white 
and  negro  labor  at  wages  two  or  three  times  in  excess  of 
former  rates. 


SOCIAL   RECONSTRUCTION  57 

Diversified  farming  is  making  rapid  progress  throughout 
the  South.  Modern  dairy  barns,  silos,  and  herds  of  high- 
grade  Jerseys,  Holsteins,  and  Guernseys  are  seen  in  every 
direction.  Good  hogs  are  taking  the  place  of  the  North 
Carolina  razorbacks,  and  fine  mules  are  raised  for  the  market. 
Fields  of  corn,  wheat,  alfalfa,  velvet  beans,  and  other  fodder 
crops  are  either  taking  the  place  of  cotton  on  worn-out  land, 
or  are  occupying  land  which  has  been  heretofore  uncultivated. 
Magnificent  orchards  are  being  developed  in  mountain  regions. 
The  farmers  are  recognizing  that,  notwithstanding  the  recent 
high  prices  of  cotton,  and  the  large  profit  from  it  in  favorable 
years,  it  is  nevertheless  against  their  interests  to  rely  upon  a 
single  crop. 

As  a  result  of  new  enterprises,  expenditures  of  government 
money,  high  prices,  and  high  wages,  the  Southern  people  have 
become  prosperous.  New  houses,  new  farm  buildings,  new 
wagons  and  carriages,  automobiles,  expensive  furniture,  and 
fine  clothes  abound.  Farmers  are  getting  out  of  debt  and  buy- 
ing blooded  stock  and  tractors.  At  a  little  mill  station  I  saw 
five  women  getting  off  the  train,  each  one  wearing  a  showy 
silk  dress.  Even  the  state  convicts,  working  on  the  lease 
system  at  the  coal  mines,  have  shared  in  the  general  pros- 
perity. Formerly  the  state  of  Alabama  received  for  the  labor 
of  negro  coal  miners  $15,  $25,  or  sometimes  $30  a  month. 
Now  they  are  receiving  for  convicts  of  the  same  class,  $50, 
$60,  $70,  and  $80  per  month.  The  convicts,  after  doing  their 
daily  task,  are  allowed  to  work  for  themselves,  and  in  response 
to  the  appeal  of  the  United  States  Fuel  Administration  for 
more  coal,  they  put  in  vigorous  "overtime,"  earning  from  $3 
to  $25  per  month  extra.  (I  saw  the  record  of  two  convicts, 
working  together,  who  earned  for  themselves  $30  extra  in  a 
single  week. )  They  spend  these  extra  earnings  as  they  please, 
buying  soft  drinks,  candy,  tobacco,  silk  shirts,  $8  Stetson  hats, 
$12  shoes,  and  $30  suits.  Negro  laborers,  earning  $3  to 
$4.50  per  day,  bought  showy  furniture,  phonographs,  pianos, 
and  automobiles,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  they  were  liv- 
ing in  wretched  shanties,  where  cleanliness  and  order  were 
unknown. 


58  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

The  extravagance  of  the  working  people  is  not  altogether 
waste;  it  represents  the  awakening  of  new  desires  which  call 
for  industry  and  thrift,  and  with  them  come  more  rational 
expenditures  for  better  food,  cook  stoves,  household  imple- 
ments, comfortable  beds,  and,  very  soon,  better  housing.  With 
this  prosperity  comes  also  a  general  demand  from  whites  and 
blacks  for  better  schoolhouses,  more  competent  school  teachers, 
waterworks,  sewers,  and  good  roads. 

With  the  increase  in  public  revenues,  resulting  from  the 
general  prosperity,  there  is  an  increasing  disposition  to  meet 
the  social  obligations  of  the  community. 

State  sanitaria  for  tuberculosis  patients  have  been  built  by 
a  number  o-f  Southern  States,  and  state  appropriations  for 
health  and  sanitation  have  been  largely  increased,  as  will  be 
seen  from  the  following  statement : 


SOCIAL    RECONSTRUCTION 


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SOCIAL    RECONSTRUCTION  61 


GOVERNMENT  COSTS— HEALTH  AND  SANITATION 


General  Same      Tuherpiilosiq        ^^™*  Same 

Health  and  Per  San'tetjon  P«^  totals  Per 

Sanitation         Capita       »an»iai'on         Capita  Capita 

Alabama  $  26,000  $0.01        $   26,000  $0.01 

Arkansas    16.000  .01  $59,000        $0.03  75,000  .04 

Florida     165,000  .18        165.000  .18 

Georgia  31.000  .01  36,000            .01  67.000  .02 

Louisiana  40,000  .02        40.000  .02 

Maryland   162,000  .12        ! 162.000        

Mississippi  ....  48.000  .02  70,000            .04  118.000  .06 

N.  Carolina-.  105.000  .04  40,000            .02  145,000  .06 

Oklahoma    -.  33.000  .02        33,000        

S.  Carolina....  65,000  .04  49,000            .03  105,000  .07 

Tennessee    .-  39.000  .02        39,000  .02 

Texas    250,000  .05  128,000            .03  378,000  .08 

Virginia    164,000  .07  75,000            .04  239,000  .11 

The  people  of  the  South  are  American  born.  Only  two 
and  one-half  per  cent  of  the  Southern  people  were  foreign 
born  in  1910,  as  against  23  per  cent  for  the  rest  of  the  nation. 
The  people  of  the  South,  white  and  black,  are  intensely 
patriotic,  and  when  America  went  into  the  European  war  the 
entire  population  of  the  South  enlisted  in  the  public  service. 
They  met  promptly  every  call  for  men  and  money.  They 
organized  state  and  local  councils  of  defense  to  promote 
patriotism  and  to  make  efficient  their  participation  in  the 
efficient  carrying  on  of  the  war. 

The  prosperity  which  came  to  the  South  reacted  in  a 
spirit  of  generosity.  Nearly  all  of  the  Southern  States  met 
every  call  for  Liberty  Loans.  Red  Cross  subscriptions,  drives 
for  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.',  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.,  and  Training  Camp 
Activities  promptly  and  fully,  and  usually  with  a  large  over- 
.subscription.  Churches,  women's  clubs,  Rotary  Clubs, 
fraternal  orders,  and  private  citizens  vied  with  each  other  to 
provide  for  the  needs  and  comforts  and  recreation  of  soldiers 
and  sailors  in  camp  and  in  transit. 

These  activities  and  experiences  affected  the  outlook  of  the 
entire  South.  People  began  to  think  in  hundreds  of  thousands 
instead  of  thousands.  The  city  which  subscribed  five  millions 
in  Liberty  Bonds,  and  two  hundred  thousand  dollars  for  the 
Red  Cross,  suddenly  discovered  new  possibilities  of  revenue 
for  sewers,  schoolhouses,  and  street  improvement.  The  state 
which   increased   its   United   States   tax    from   one   hundred 


62  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

thousand  dollars  per  year  to  ten  millions  discovered  new  possi- 
bilities of  public  taxation  for  insane  hospitals,  tuberculosis 
sanitaria,  and  good  roads. 

It  has  been  interesting  to  see  how  the  Southern  States 
have  enlarged  their  horizon  under  the  influence  of  war  con- 
ditions. 

The  physical  examination  of  soldiers  and  sailors,  and  the 
medical  and  sanitary  measures  adopted  for  the  protection  of 
their  health,  has  been  a  revelation  to  the  people  of  the  South, 
both  as  to  the  physical  defects  of  the  population  and  as  to 
preventive  measures.  Mississippi  has  established  a  state  sani- 
torium  for  tuberculosis  patients  which  is  organized  and 
equipped  along  the  most  modern  lines.  Texas  has  built  and 
equipped  a  reformatory  for  girls,  after  a  careful  study  of  the 
best  institutions  in  the  United  States.  West  Virginia  has  re- 
organized its  state  child  welfare  agencies,  and  has  created  a 
State  Board  of  Children's  Guardians  of  the  most  approved 
character,  with  an  annual  appropriation  of  $25,000.  The 
director  of  the  new  board  was  sent  at  state  expense  to  study 
child  welfare  work  in  other  states,  and  the  State  Council  of 
Defense  oflFered  a  grant  from  its  appropriation  for  the  develop- 
ment of  the  child  welfare  work  as  a  war  measure.  South 
Carolina  has  brought  its  new  State  Board  of  Charities  up  to  a 
high  degree  of  efficiency,  and  has  taken  steps  to  develop  a 
modern  social  program  for  the  state. 

A  notable  example  of  the  new  social  spirit  of  the  South  is 
seen  in  the  extraordinary  undertakings  of  the  Tennessee  Coal 
and  Iron  Company.  In  former  years  that  company  was  never 
accused  of  sentimental  weakness  in  its  dealings  with  its  em- 
ployees. It  built  company  houses  for  its  miners  and  its  steel 
workers  like  those  of  other  companies.  It  ran  company  stores 
where  the  employees  made  liberal  contribution  for  the  benefit 
of  the  company.  It  leased  state  convicts  for  a  pittance,  fed, 
clothed,  housed,  and  doctored  them  as  cheaply  as  possible; 
worked  them  hard  and  punished  them  duly  when  they  failed  to 
perform  the  allotted  task. 

The  present  management  abandoned  the  convict  lease 
system  and  developed  a  social  program  of  unexampled  magni- 
tude.   The  company  is  expending  for  medical  work  more  than 


SOCIAL    RECONSTRUCTION  63 

$250,000  per  year.  It  employs  54  physicians  full  time,  and 
has  established  a  dental  clinic  and  toothbrush  drills  in  each  of 
its  villages.  The  company  has  established  a  Social  Science 
Department,  under  a  woman  director,  trained  by  Dr.  Graham 
Taylor,  of  Chicago.  This  department  employs  more  than 
200  people  and  expends  more  than  $200,000  per  year.  It 
builds  excellent  modern  schoolhouses  with  first-class  equip- 
ment. It  employs  teachers  of  normal  or  college  training  and 
sent  last  year  12  of  them  for  special  training  in  summer  schools 
at  Chicago  and  Columbia  universities.  It  establishes  in  the 
several  villages  community  houses,  men's  club  houses,  bath 
houses,  kindergartens,  public  playgrounds,  and  public  parks. 
The  "company  houses"  in  the  new  villages  are  of  entirely 
new  types.  Instead  of  the  ugly,  bare,  two-family  shacks, 
there  are  neat  houses  of  varying  size,  shape,  and  colors,  with 
broad  verandas  and  modern  plumbing,  located  on  winding 
streets  and  broken  ground.  These  houses  rent  for  about  $3 
per  room. 

RISING  STANDARDS  IN   THE  TREATMENT  OF  THE  NEGRO 

In  studying  social  agencies  and  social  conditions  in  five 
Southern  States,  and  in  personal  observations  of  conditions  in 
four  other  Southern  States,  I  found  a  widespread  feeling 
among  the  most  intelligent  and  patriotic  white  citizens  that 
the  Negro  has  not  been  receiving  full  justice  in  several  respects, 
and  that  the  white  race,  holding  the  authority  of  government 
and  the  power  of  public  sentiment,  owed  it  to  themselves  and 
to  their  black  neighbors  to  take  active  steps  for  a  change  of 
these  conditions. 

The  sentiment  as  to  the  necessity  for  improvement  in  these 
directions  was  apparent  among  state  officials  and  legislators, 
state  superintendents  of  public  instruction  and  other  educators, 
clergymen,  social  workers,  and  journalists.  The  need  of  im- 
provement was  emphasized  with  reference  to  education,  voca- 
tional training,  industrial  opportunity,  health  and  sanitation, 
living  conditions,  social  justice,  and  mob  violence.  There  ap- 
pear to  be  substantial  agreement  between  the  leaders  of  both 
races,  white  and  black,  that  there  ought  to  be  radical  improve- 
ment in  all  of  these  particulars. 


64  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

It  is  quite  generally  agreed  that  the  emigration  of  some 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  Negroes  from  their  natural  dwelling 
place  in  the  South  to  Northern  States,  while  largely  due  to 
the  scarcity  of  labor  in  the  North,  owing  to  the  stopping  of 
foreign  immigration  and  the  expansion  of  Northern  industries 
in  consequence  of  the  war,  was  materially  increased  by  the 
dissatisfaction  caused  by  these  conditions.  Intelligent  Negroes 
who  had  been  North  said :  "In  the  North  we  find  high  rents, 
bad  living  conditions,  and  a  cold  climate;  but  our  children 
have  the  same  privileges  with  the  white  children;  if  we  get 
into  court,  we  get  the  same  treatment  with  white  persons ;  we 
do  not  live  in  fear  of  mob  violence ;  and  while  the  cost  of  liv- 
ing is  much  greater  the  wages  are  generally  better." 

In  some  quarters  the  opinion  was  expressed  that  the  great 
increase  in  wages  in  the  South,  the  admitted  improvement  in 
educational  conditions — especially  in  agricultural  training  and 
in  normal  schools — and  the  earnest  movement  of  leading  citi- 
zens and  the  public  press  for  the  abolition  of  mob  violence, 
the  even  administration  of  the  courts,  and  the  reformation  of 
jails  and  prisons  had  effectually  checked  the  removal  of  the 
Negroes  to  Northern  States.  My  observation  leads  me  to 
doubt  this  conclusion.  The  immediate  revival  of  foreign  im- 
migration seems  improbable  because  the  European  countries 
will  need  all  of  their  man  power  for  reconstruction,  and  be- 
cause it  appears  likely  that  Congress,  with  the  help  of  its 
Southern  members,  will  impose  more  stringent  restrictions 
than  ever  upon  immigration.  When  business  conditions  be- 
come normal  and  building  operations  are  resumed,  the  attrac- 
tions of  the  North  are  likely  to  become  greater  than  ever,  and 
to  result  in  new  embarrassment  for  the  farmers  and  manu- 
facturers of  the  South.  Self-interest  as  well  as  a  sense  of 
justice  will  stimulate  the  effort  to  remove  all  unnecessary 
stimulus  to  this  movement. 

NEGRO  EDUCATION 

There  is  a  gradual  improvement  in  the  educational  oppor- 
tunity provided  for  the  Negro  population,  but  those  oppor- 
tunities are  still  belo.w  the  reasonable  requirements  of  even  a 
common-school  education.     The  opinion  has  often  been  ex- 


SOCIAL   RECONSTRUCTION  65 

pressed  that  the  Negro  is  being  over-educated,  but  the  facts  do 
not  seem  to  warrant  any  fears  with  reference  to  this  matter. 

The  Bureau  of  Education  of  the  Department  of  the 
Interior  published  Bulletin  No.  38,  in  1916,  relating  to  Negro 
education.  This  report  showed  that  out  of  12,726  students 
attending  ''institutions  of  higher  education  for  Negroes"  in 
the  United  States,  only  1,643  were  studying  college  subjects, 
and  only  994  were  in  professional  classes,  while  the  remaining 
10,089  were  in  elementary  and  secondary  grades.  In  the 
Northern  colleges  there  were  found  430  colored  students  of 
college  or  university  grades,  of  whom  309  were  in  college  and 
121  were  in  professional  schools,  making  a  total  of  1,952 
college  students  and  1,303  professional  students.  This,  out 
of  a  total  Negro  population  of  10,000,000,  is  only  one  college 
or  professional  student  out  of  every  3,075  of  the  Negro 
population. 

The  same  report  showed  that  the  number  of  Negro  pupils 
receiving  secondary  education  (i.  e.,  the  equivalent  of  high- 
school  training)  in  the  United  States  was :  In  schools  under 
public  control,  3,800 ;  in  schools  under  private  control,  11,527 ; 
total,  15,327,  or  one  for  every  652  of  the  Negro  population. 
The  appropriations  for  higher  schools  for  white  pupils  in  the 
Southern  States  amounted  to  $6,430,000,  and  the  appropria- 
tions for  higher  schools  for  Negroes  amounted  to  about 
$333,000.  The  appropriations  for  teachers'  salaries  amounted 
to  $10.32  for  each  white  child  enrolled  and  $2.89  for  each 
colored  child,  so  that  the  appropriation  per  child  was  four 
times  as  great  for  each  white  child  as  for  each  Negro  child. 
In  some  states  the  appropriation  for  each  Negro  child  is  less 
than  one-tenth  the  amount  for  each  white  child.  The  value 
of  school  property  shows  a  similar  discrepancy.  In  Alabama 
the  Negroes  constitute  41  per  cent  of  the  population,  and  they 
have  10  per  cent  of  the  value  of  the  school  property,  and  11 
per  cent  of  the  appropriation  for  salaries  of  public-school 
teachers.  The  average  salary  of  white  female  teachers  is 
$367  and  of  Negroes  $172  per  year. 

In  South  Carolina  rural  districts  white  schools  are  in 
session  130  days  in  the  year,  and  Negro  school  64  days. 
The  average  number  of  pupils  per  teacher  in  white  schools  is 


66  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

23,  and  in  Negro  schools  46.  The  average  teacher's  salary  is 
$395  per  year  for  whites,  and  $116  for  Negroes;  and  the 
average  expenditure  for  Negro  pupils  is  about  one-tenth  as 
great  as  for  whites.  Many  Negro  teachers  have  had  no  train- 
ing beyond  the  seventh  or  eighth  grade  of  the  common  schools. 
The  normal  schools,  while  gradually  improving,  are  entirely 
inadequate  in  every  Southern  state. 

Vocational  training,  especially  in  agriculture,  has  been 
developed  to  a  considerable  degree  in  most  of  the  Southern 
States,  with  the  assistance  of  subsidies  from  the  general  gov- 
ernment. The  success  of  such  training  in  institutions  for 
Negroes  like  Hampton,  Tuskegee,  and  Wilber force  has  demon- 
strated its  practical  value;  but  as  yet  it  reaches  a  very  small 
proportion  of  the  Negro  youth. 

Formerly  the  impression  prevailed  widely  that  education 
tended  to  disqualify  the  Negro  for  the  kind  of  labor  which  is 
needed  in  the  South.  But  it  is  now  generally  recognized  that 
wise  and  practical  education  increases  the  efficiency  of  all 
labor,  and  tends  to  diminish  vice  and  crime. 

The  industrial  opportunity  of  the  Negro  is  probably  better 
at  the  present  time  in  the  South  than  in  the  North  for  the 
reason  that  a  greater  variety  of  employment  is  open  to  him, 
and  that  the  increase  in  wages  is  sufficient  to  outweigh  the 
somewhat  larger  wages  in  the  North  if  the  difference  in  the 
cost  of  living,  together  with  traveling  and  moving  expenses, 
is  taken  into  account. 

Any  observer  of  living  conditions  in  city  or  country  can 
discover  for  himself  that  the  complaints  as  to  bad  housing, 
poor  drainage,  lack  of  sewer  facilities,  water  privileges,  and 
street  improvements  in  the  Negro  districts  are  well  founded. 
The  schoolhouses  of  the  Negroes  are  generally  unsanitary, 
uncomfortable,  and  badly  furnished.  Marked  improvement  is 
manifest  in  some  communities,  but  is  exceptional. 

It  is  generally  agreed  that  Negro  criminals  are  treated  with 
severity,  and  that  petty  offenders  often  receive  sentences  out 
of  all  proportion  to  the  magnitude  of  their  offenses. 

In  the  state  of  Alabama,  out  of  2,465  convicts,  63  per  cent 
had  sentences  of  10  years  or  more,  and  22  per  cent  had 
sentences  of  50  years  or  more.      (The  great  body  of  these 


SOCIAL   RECONSTRUCTION  67 

prisoners  were  Negroes.)  A  comparison  of  the  relative 
mortality  of  white  and  Negro  prisoners  as  reported  by  the 
U.  S.  Census  Department : 

MORTALITY  OF  CONVICTS 


Deaths  per  1.000 

White                           Negro 

Arkansas  

„ 594                      69.3 

South  Carolina  

„ „   18.0                      30.8 

Tennessee „ 

„   11.4                      29.5 

Alabama  — 

12                      28.3 

Virginia    

_ „  31.0                      21.8 

Louisiana  _ _ 

_. _ 8.9                      21.1 

Kentucky   „ 

- 7.5                      21.1 

Mississippi  

19.5                      20.8 

Oklahoma    

_ „ 9.6                      18.6 

Maryland  

„ 7.6                      18.3 

Georgia  „. 

0.0                     15.5 

West  Virginia _. 

„ 13.1                       15.2 

North  Carolina  

_. 9.8                      13.8 

Texas    _ _... 

„. _. _ 8.6                      12.7 

General   average  _ 8.3  21.1 

I  visited  15  prison  camps  and  prisons  in  five  different 
Southern  States.  In  almost  every  case  the  prisoners  had  a 
sufficient  supply  of  combread  and  meat  (usually  pork).  In 
most  cases  the  sanitary  conditions  were  unsatisfactory,  espe- 
cially in  the  matter  of  beds  and  bedding.  In  hardly  any  case 
was  there  any  systematic  effort  at  reformatory  influences. 
The  prison  chaplain,  in  many  cases,  did  not  hold  services 
oftener  than  once  a  month,  and  frequently  the  interval  was 
much  longer.  In  a  number  of  prisons  there  was  opportunity 
for  earning  by  working  overtime,  but  in  most  cases  the 
prisoners  were  allowed  to  expend  these  earnings  in  unprofitable 
ways,  and  in  several  prisons  gambling  was  freely  tolerated 
although  forbidden  by  law.  Many  of  the  prison  officers  were 
pessimistic  as  to  the  possibilities  of  reforming  Negro  prisoners, 
and  considered  educational  efforts  useless. 

In  Alabama  there  was  a  remarkable  example  of  the  possi- 
bility of  appealing  to  the  better  instincts  of  the  prisoners. 
Governor  Charles  Henderson  established  a  system  of  "short 
paroles"  under  which  a  prisoner  might  be  allowed  to  visit  a 
sick  mother  or  attend  the  funeral  of  a  relative,  or  to  spend  a 
week  or  two  assisting  his  family  in  harvest  time.     In  every 


68  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

case  the  prisoner  went  and  came,  unattended.  In  four  years 
585  short  paroles  were  given,  most  of  them  to  Negro  prisoners, 
and  580  men  came  back  to  serve  out  their  sentences,  notwith- 
standing the  fact  that  the  prison  conditions  were  severe. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  discuss  the  subject  of  mob  violence. 
Its  uselessness  as  a  deterrent,  the  fact  that  it  promotes  and 
does  not  hinder  crime,  and  its  demoralizing  effect  upon  the 
members  of  the  mob  and  the  communities  in  which  they 
operate,  are  generally  conceded  by  all  intelligent  and  thought- 
ful people.  Every  good  citizen  should  labor  to  educate  the 
community  in  respect  for  law  and  in  efforts  for  its  prompt 
and  faithful  execution.  The  splendid  efforts  which  have  al- 
ready been  made  in  this  direction,  especially  by  this  Sociological 
Congress,  must  be  constantly  sustained  by  educators,  preachers, 
editors,  public  officers,  and  good  citizens  generally. 

There  seems  no  reason  to  doubt  that  the  South,  under  the 
impetus  acquired  during  the  war,  will  continue  the  develop- 
ment of  its  social  work.  Her  lack  of  progress  in  the  past  now 
offers  greater  opportunity  for  the  future,  because  she  is  not 
hindered  by  established  institutions  which  can  not  be  changed. 
She  is  able  to  begin  at  the  bottom  and  to  avail  herself  of  the 
experience  of  other  communities.  It  will  not  be  greatly  to  the 
credit  of  the  South  if  the  new  instiutions  which  she  is  now 
developing  shall  excel  those  of  other  communities — they  ought 
to  be  better;  but  it  will  be  greatly  to  her  discredit  if  she  shall 
neglect  to  improve  upon  the  failures  and  successes  of  other 
states.  

THE  PROPER  USE  OF  LEISURE  TIME 

T.    S.    SETTLE,    SPECIAL   DISTRICT    REPRESENTATIVE,    WAR    CAMP 

/ 
COMMUNITY  SERVICE 

The  additional  leisure  time,  which  will  be  created  by 
the  enactment  of  eight-hour  laws  and  child  labor  laws  as 
recommended  in  the  Paris  Peace  Treaty,  will,  in  many  in- 
stances, prove  a  curse  rather  than  a  blessing,  unless  coupled 
with  a  constructive  program. 

What  are  the  people  of  America,  white  and  black,  going 
to  do  with  the  additional  leisure  time  they  will  have  thrust 


THE    USE    OF    LEISURE    TIME  69 

upon  them  when  state  and  national  legislative  bodies  carry  out 
the  provisions  of  the  peace  treaty  regarding  forty-eight-hour 
week  and  restricted  child  labor?  If  rightly  used,  this  leisure 
time  will  be  an  untold  blessing  to  the  two  races.  If  the  people 
affected  are  left  to  their  present  inadequate  facilities  and 
limited  opportunities  for  wholesome  leisure  time,  this  legis- 
lation will  in  all  too  many  instances  prove  a  curse. 

Our  draft  board  reports  show  that  many  of  those  affected 
by  this  legislation  are  illiterate  or  nearly  so;  fine  potential 
citizens  who  patriotically  responded  to  the  call  of  their  country 
and,  in  many  instances,  bled  for  it,  but  who  have  within  them 
very  limited  training  for  their  own  leisure-time  entertainment 
and  development. 

When  do  vice  and  immorality  run  rampant?  During  the 
hours  of  idleness. 

What  is  now  the  chief  point  of  friction  in  race  relations? 
The  leisure  time. 

RACE  CLASHES  IN  IDLE  HOURS 

The  race  clashes  come  not  so  much  during  the  hours  of 
labor  as  during  the  hours  of  idleness.  Shall  this  friction  be 
increased  or  decreased?  It  can  be  greatly  decreased  if  whole- 
some recreational  facilities  and  leadership  are  provided. 

What  then  should  the  American  people  do  about  it  ? 

For  the  past  two  years  the  government  has  given  the 
greatest  and  most  successful  demonstration  of  the  proper  use 
of  leisure  time  that  the  world  has  ever  seen.  The  leisure 
time  of  the  four  million  men  in  uniform  was  the  serious  con- 
cern of  the  officials  and  of  the  general  public,  as  well  as  the 
relatives  of  these  men.  But  the  President  and  the  Secretaries 
of  War  and  of  the  Navy  determined  to  utilize  this  leisure  time 
so  as  to  send  the  men  back  to  their  homes  better  educated  and 
better  morally  and  physically  than  when  they  were  taken 
away.  Music,  athletics,  theaters,  libraries,  Y.  M.  C.  A., 
Y.  W.  C.  A..  K.  of  C,  Jewish  Welfare  Boards,  and  other 
activities  were  operated  within  the  camps.  Use  of  these 
privileges  was  entirely  voluntary,  but  so  attractive  were  they 
made  that  they  were  universally  patronized. 


70  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

In  former  wars  the  camp  city  had  been  detrimental  to  the 
soldiers  and  the  soldiers  proved  detrimental  to  the  camp  city. 
Through  the  agency  of  Community  Service,  working  under 
direction  of  the  government,  social  and  recreational  facilities 
of  these  cities  were  thrown  wide  open  to  the  soldiers,  and  the 
good  citizenship  was  mobilized  to  extend  its  hospitality  and 
brotherhood  and  sisterhood.  The  universal  verdict  is  that 
never  in  the  history  of  these  cities  has  life  been  so  wholesome, 
and  never  have  four  million  men  been  gotten  together  who  have 
developed  such  high  idealism  and  such  clean  and  chivalrous 
conduct. 

The  American  people  in  times  of  peace  need  only  to  apply 
and  adapt  these  lessons  to  the  problems  of  industry  and  agri- 
culture. These  same  gallant  soldiers  are  pouring  back  to  our 
factories  and  farms.  They  are  craving  the  recreations  they 
have  enjoyed  in  army  life.  They  also  realize  that  their 
younger  brothers  and  sisters,  their  fathers  and  mothers,  need 
leisure-time  activities  as  well. 

NEED  COMMUNITY  CENTERS 

Every  locality  needs  its  outdoor  playground  and  athletic 
field  for  the  people  of  all  ages,  and  its  indoor  gathering  place. 

In  order  to  insure  the  adequate  and  proper  use  of  these 
facilities,  trained  leaders  are  essential. 

In  addition  to  these  community  centers,  it  is  safe  to  say 
that  ninety-nine  out  of  one  hundred  colored  communities  in  the 
South  need  a  central  leisure-time  activities'  building,  and  so  do 
the  majority  of  white  communities.  These  buildings  could 
most  fittingly  be  erected  as  memorials  to  the  soldiers  of  the 
world-war.  They  should  be  erected  largely  by  private  funds 
and  maintained  largely  through  public  taxation.  They  should 
be  built  to  fit  the  needs  of  the  individual  community.  Audi- 
torium, gymnasium,  shower  baths,  reading-rooms,  game 
rooms,  club  rooms,  and  cooking  equipment  will  be  required  in 
almost  every  case. 

This  community  building  and  the  playgrounds  and 
recreation  fields  should  provide  physical  exercise  and  play 
for  all  ages  and  both  sexes,  promote  community  singing  and 
other  forms  of  music,  give  object  lessons  in  better  home  mak- 


THE    USE    OF    LEISURE    TIME  71 

ing,  sanitation,  and  cooking,  and  be  the  central  clearing-house 
for  all  things  that  are  for  the  civic  and  moral  betterment  of 
the  community. 

GREATER  EMPHASIS  ON    PLAY 

Dr.  Richard  Cabot  wisely  classifies  what  any  individual 
lives  by  under  Work,  Play,  Love,  and  Worship.  Love  of 
home  and  country  by  Americans  has  been  demonstrated  in 
the  late  war.  We  are  emphasizing  worship  and  work,  includ- 
ing education.  I  would  not  minimize  the  importance  of  these 
three,  indeed  there  is  need  for  greater  effort  along  these  lines. 
But  the  time  is  full  ripe  for  much  greater  emphasis  upon  the 
fourth  element — Play.  Now  is  the  time  of  America's  greatest 
opportunity.    Will  she  rise  to  it  ? 

When  our  hearts  were  aflame  with  patriotism,  we  spent 
freely  of  our  personal  efforts  and  of  our  wealth  that  the 
leisure  time  of  our  country's  defenders  might  become  a  con- 
structive force.  The  fruits  of  their  glorious  victory  are  yet 
to  be  gathered.  The  demand  for  efficient,  energetic,  well- 
trained  citizens  will  be  as  great  in  the  next  decade  as  it  has 
been  in  the  past  two  years.  A  group  of  Negroes  laboring  well 
in  a  Southern  cotton  field,  in  mill,  or  factory  will  be  rendering 
as  patriotic  service  as  they  would  in  the  battlefields  of  France. 
If  the  general  public  can  work  out  this  idea,  the  unselfish 
service  that  we  have  been  rendering  will  be  conserved  for  even 
greater  development,  and  our  leisure  time  will  become  a 
blessing  rather  than  a  menace. 


IT'S  A  HARD  FIGHT  TO  SAVE  THE  CHILDREN 

(Sung  to  the  tune  of  Tipperary) 

Through  the  nations  of  the  world  there  stalks  the  fiend  Disease. 
Leaving  death  and  broken  hearts,  from  seas  to  rolling  seas. 
Will  you  bravely  give  your  aid  to  stop  this  demon's  blight? 
For  all  the  little  children  dread  his  cruel  deadly  might. 

Chorus 

It's  a  hard  fight  to  save  the  children ; 

It's  a  hard  fight,  we  know. 
It's  a  hard  fight  to  save  the  children, 

But  the  fiend  Disease  must  go, 
Come,  men,  for  hearth  and  homeland,  play  up,  do  your  share ! 

It's  a  hard,  hard  fight  to  save  the  children; 
But  the  Old  South's  right  there ! 

Hail  ye,  doctor  captains,  on  your  far-flung  fever  line ; 
And  ye  preacher  pickets,  brave  with  love  of  life  divine ; 
Rouse,  ye  sons  of  Lee  and  Lincoln,  heed  the  will  of  God, 
Who  never  meant  a  darling  child  to  sleep  beneath  the  sod. 

Should  this  smiling  playground  of  the  nation's  children  dear 
Frown  with  tiny  orphaned  graves  that  make  the  mothers  fear? 
Hark,  O  men !  a  million  children's  bitter  wail  of  woe ; 
For  this  is  God's  clear  chorus  call:  "The  fiend  Disease  must  go!" 


III.     PUBLIC  HEALTH 


The  Value  of  Prevention 

A  Community  Program  for  Public  Health 

The  Menace  of  Venereal  Diseases 

The  Government's  War  on  Venereal  Diseases 


•  THE  VALUE  OF  PREVENTION 

"Prevention  is  better  than  cure  and  far  cheaper." 

— John  Locke. 

"Gold  that  buys  health  can  never  be  ill  spent." 

— Daniel  Webster. 

"Progress  depends  utterly  on  health." 

—H.  B.  Favill. 

"Bad  food  has  killed  its  thousands,  bad  water  its 
tens  of  thousands,  bad  air  its  hundreds  of  thousands." 

— W.  A.  Evans. 

"Cure   the    sick,     .     .     .     heal    lepers,      , 
drive  out  evil  spirits." 

— Jesus. 


A  COMMUNITY  PROGRAM  FOR  PUBLIC  HEALTH 

MAJOR    C.    W.    STILES,    M.    D.,    UNITED   STATES    PUBLIC    HEALTH 

SERVICE 

To  use  a  very  extreme  yet  thoroughly  justified  illustration 
in  order  to  show  into  what  details  this  health  principle  extends, 
I  submit  that  any  person  who  dies  an  unnecessary  death,  takes 
away  from  the  shipbuilding  program,  directly  or  indirectly,  a 
certain  amount  of  labor,  lumber,  and  metal  used  in  building  an 
unnecessary  coffin,  and  on  this  as  well  as  on  other  accounts 
his  preventable  death,  if  due  to  his  own  carelessness,  is  an 
unpatriotic  act  on  his  part,  and  if  due  to  the  carelessness  of 
some  other  person  it  is  an  unpatriotic  act  on  the  part  of  that 
person.  Specifically,  any  town  which  permits  conditions  to 
continue  that  are  favorable  to  a  spread  of  typhoid  fever,  is 
disloyal  to  the  state  and  nation. 

Extend  this  line  of  reasoning  and  the  conclusion  is  justified 
that  nation-wide  public  health  has  become  a  necessity  which 
every  loyal  person  and  every  loyal  community  is  in  honor 
bound  to  support. 

Public  health  is  a  purchasable  commodity.  Any  com- 
munity which  will  pay  the  price  can  have  it.  This  price  con- 
sists of  money  for  materials  and  opportunity  for  their  proper 
use.  If  the  health  officer  has  no  budget  for  materials  and 
labor,  he  can  make  only  slow  progress.  Accordingly,  I  would 
urge  you  to  be  generous  in  your  appropriations  and  your  time. 
Every  hour  you  spend  voluntarily  in  keeping  your  own 
premises  free  from  unsanitary  conditions  saves  for  the  health 
officer  time  and  energy  which  he  can  use  in  work  other  than 
compelling  you  to  be  sanitary.  In  other  words,  every  social 
unit  or  community,  federal,  state,  county,  city,  and  family, 
should  have  its  own  health  officers  of  the  smallest  units  do 
their  work,  the  less  work  the  health  officers  of  the  larger 
units  have  to  do.  There  is  a  marked  tendency  at  present  to 
call  upon  the  Federal  Government  to  assume  charge  of  various 
activities,  and  health  work  forms  no  exception.  Frankly,  so 
far  as  health  work  is  concerned,  I  feel  that  the  construction 
of  sanitary  privies  belongs  more  to  the  house-owner  than  it 


76  ''distinguished  service"  citizenship 

does  to  the  federal,  state,  or  local  government.  Accordingly, 
as  a  fundamental  principle  in  health  matters,  I  would  urge 
that  progress  lies  more  in  improving  the  conditions  in  the 
smallest  communities,  namely,  the  families,  than  it  does  in  the 
larger  communities;  hence  I  would  urge  the  greatest  possible 
cooperation  with  the  health  office  by  the  family. 

One  health  subject  which  is  brought  sharply  to  the  fore 
by  the  war  is  the  present  shortage  in  graduate  nurses.  This 
is  fast  becoming  an  acute  problem  and  we  must  be  awake  to 
its  seriousness.  In  fact,  if  an  extensive  epidemic  of  typhoid 
were  to  occur  to-morrow  in  my  zone  of  operation,  I  do  not 
know  where  I  could  find  enough  nurses  for  the  civil  cases. 

To  meet  this  situation  which  is  rapidly  becoming  more 
serious  I  would  suggest  three  plans : 

First,  that  more  young  ladies  enter  hospitals  as  student 
nurses ; 

Second,  that  girls  past  the  school  age  and  young  women 
take  the  Red  Cross  course  in  home  nursing; 

Third,  that  home  nursing  be  introduced  into  every  high 
school  as  part  of  the  regular  course  of  study,  so  that  all  high- 
school  girls  will  be  prepared  to  help  nurse  the  sick  at  home. 

Do  not  misunderstand  me.  I  am  not  proposing  to  graduate 
nurses  after  a  few  hours  of  theoretical  work  in  Red  Cross  or 
in  high-school  courses,  nor  am  I  proposing  to  send  these  girls 
and  young  women  into  the  hospitals  to  attend  to  surgical 
cases.  I  am  simply  proposing  to  prepare  all  girls  to  do  more 
efficiently  and  more  intelligently  certain  duties  they  are  now 
called  upon  more  or  less  to  do  at  home,  namely,  help  take  care 
of  the  sick  members  of  their  families,  so  as  to  be  prepared  to 
relieve  the  present  rapidly  developing  nurse  famine. 

Scarcity  of  male  labor  necessarily  means  an  increase  in 
woman  and  child  labor  on  the  farms,  and  this  will  potentially 
result  not  only  in  a  scarcity  of  certain  foods,  but  also  in  a 
potential  increase  in  disease  and  death,  especially  among 
infants.  On  this  account,  I  would  urge  greater  conservation 
and  care  of  the  milk  supply;  pasteurization  of  municipal 
milk  supplies,  especially  during  the  warmer  months;  greater 
attention  to  a  rational  understanding  of  foods  and  possible 
food  substitutions;    rational  economy  in  all  foods;    and  in- 


A    PROGRAM    FOR    PUBLIC    HEALTH  77 

creased  home  production  of  foods.  As  a  specific  suggestion 
looking  toward  a  much-needed  increase  of  the  milk  supply, 
especially  for  babies  and  children,  I  would  suggest  that  many 
families  might  well  raise  their  own  milk  by  keeping  one  or 
more  goats.  Goats'  milk  is  especially  good  for  children  and 
it  makes  good  cheese ;  goats'  meat  is  good,  and  the  goats  are 
a  help  to  the  health  officer  in  more  ways  than  one.  They  can 
be  cared  for  by  the  children,  and  if  properly  staked  they  will 
not  injure  trees  or  other  valuable  growth. 

One  of  the  problems  we  nuist  consider  very  seriously  is  our 
ever-present  tuberculosis.  This  subject  is  so  vast  and  my 
time  is  so  short  that  I  must  content  myself  with  just  a 
reference  to  its  importance,  and  with  just  a  warning  that  a 
decreased  food  supply  and  increased  privations  are  calculated 
to  increase  this  disease.  iXccordingly,  communities  should 
plan  to  meet  the  danger. 

Malaria  is  tremendously  important  for  many  localities, 
much  less  so  for  others.  A  rational  municipal  and  county 
campaign  under  leadership  of  a  competent  health  officer  can 
inhibit  this  disease  practically  to  the  jx^int  of  eradication,  pro- 
vided the  community  provides  proper  labor  and  material. 

The  privy  problem  is  always  with  us  in  the  South. 
Practically  one-half  of  all  our  Southern  farms,  a  very  large 
percentage  of  our  rural  schools,  and  nearly  all  of  our  rural 
churches  have  no  privy  of  any  kind,  and  are  therefore  in  a 
condition  that  is  favorable  to  a  spread  of  typhoid  fever. 
Hundreds  of  thousands  of  our  rural  and  our  urban  homes 
have  miserable,  disgusting,  fly-breeding,  disease-spreading, 
open-surface  privies  that  are  a  disgrace  to  our  civilization, 
and  a  menace  to  the  health  of  all.  Let  us  wake  up  to  this 
subject  and  insist  upon  sanitary  privies. 

This  new  age  demands  that  we  must  think  in  broader  terms 
than  we  ever  have  done  before,  and  this  fact  justifies  me  in  the 
frank  statement  that  the  greatest  single  health  problem  of  our 
time  is  presented  by  the  venereal  diseases.  Let  us  not  deceive 
ourselves  that  the  oldest  known  profession,  namely,  prostitu- 
tion, a  profession  that  was  once  viewed  as  a  means  of  im- 
proving the  race,  and  one  that  was  long  connected  with  the 
temples,  hence  under  religious  protection,  can  be  easily  eradi- 


78  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

cated.  Neither  the  law  nor  the  church  has  succeeded  in 
eHminating  it,  and  if  health  officers  fail  in  their  efforts  they 
will  be  the  third  profession  to  fail  in  the  attempt,  but  the 
attempt  must  be  made  as  a  health  measure,  as  well  as  a  matter 
of  race  protection,  for  a  restriction  of  venereal  diseases  has 
become  a  national  necessity,  and  since  sentiment  has  turned 
so  pronouncedly  against  the  policy  known  as  the  "restricted 
district,"  health  officers  must  now  attempt  to  eradicate  pros- 
titution altogether. 

Any  plan  of  community  work  should  include  the  following 
points : 

First.  Every  city,  and  every  county  of  sufficient  popu- 
lation, should  have  a  full-time  health  officer  of  energy  and 
intelligence,  and  this  position  should  be  free  from  petty 
politics.  It  is  unpatriotic  to  make  this  work  dependent  upon 
peanut  politics.  It  is  not  right  to  balance  human  life  with  the 
purchases  of  votes. 

Doubtless  some  counties  can  not  afford  a  full-time  officer, 
but  in  those  cases  two  or  more  neighboring  counties  can  com- 
bine and  engage  a  district  officer. 

Second.  This  health  officer  should  be  made  accountable 
to  a  Board  of  Health. 

Third.  In  order  to  insure  cooperation  between  the  health 
office  and  the  schools,  I  would  urge  that  the  Superintendent  of 
Education  be  made  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Health,  and 
that  the  health  officer  be  made  a  member  of  the  Board  of 
Education. 

Fourth.  As  local  problems  differ  in  various  counties,  in 
different  years,  and  at  different  times  of  the  year,  it  is  not 
practical  to  prescribe  in  detail  an  exact  policy  of  routine,  but 
in  general  the  health  officer  should  be  given  a  sufficient  budget, 
say  50  cents  to  $1.00  per  year  per  capita  of  population,  to 
enable  him  to  build  up  to  a  rational  plan.  The  number  and 
the  kind  of  assistants  he  requires  will  depend  upon  the  area 
he  has  to  cover,  the  density  of  population,  and  various  other 
factors.  Among  the  points  he  can  scarcely  escape  considering 
are  the  following: 

Regular  morbidity  and  mortality  records  that  will  show  to 
him  what  his  problems  really  are. 


A    PROGRAM    FOR    PUBLIC    HEALTH  79 

Backyard  sanitation  in  homes,  food,  stores,  schools,  and 
churches. 

Medical  inspection  of  all  school  children. 

Inspection  of  food  depots  of  all  kinds,  with  special  atten- 
tion to  the  milk  supply. 

Isolation  of  cases  of  certain  infectious  diseases,  with  in- 
struction to  the  families  in  the  proper  methods  of  preventing 
their  spread. 

Cooperation  with  all  possible  agencies  in  public  health 
education. 

Cooperation  with  the  food  demonstrators  in  the  prepara- 
tion of  foods  for  children  and  the  sick. 

Cooperation  with  schools  in  teaching  home  nursing. 

Cooperation  with  the  police  in  the  suppression  of  pros- 
titution. 

Cooperation  with  the  water  department  to  insure  a  pure 
water  supply. 

Cooperation  with  road,  sewer,  and  civil  engineers  to  keep 
down  mosquitoes. 

Institution  of  free  diagnosis  and  free  treatment  for 
venereal  diseases,  with  such  isolation  as  is  possible  or  practical 
in  order  to  inhibit  their  spread.  And  in  this  work,  the 
prostitute  should  be  viewed  as  a  patient,  not  as  a  criminal,  and 
she  should  have  the  same  respect  and  consideration  shown  to 
her  that  are  due  to  any  other  woman.  It  is  not  her  fault  that 
Satan  changed  her  from  a  church  attendant  into  a  purchasable 
commodity.  Nor  is  it  entirely  her  fault  that  she  is  just  what 
she  is  in  respect  to  health,  habits,  and  occupation.  The  female 
prostitute  would  not  exist  were  there  no  male  prostitute. 


80  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 


THE  MENACE  OF  VENEREAL  DISEASES 

OSCAR   DOWLING,    M.    D.,    PRESIDENT   LOUISIANA 
BOARD  OF  HEALTH 

Since  I  last  spoke  to  the  Sociological  Congress  public 
opinion  has  gone  far  in  the  recognition  of  the  evil  of  the 
social  diseases.  At  that  time — though  only  a  few  months 
ago — the  subject  was  not  in  the  list  of  the  respectable;  it  was 
taboo,  both  in  newspapers  and  in  general  conversation.  Those 
who  dared  call  attention  to  the  menace  were  thought  well 
meaning  enough,  but  classed  in  the  list  of  Utopian  reformers. 
There  were  good  men  and  good  women  who  referred  to  the 
past  as  evidence  that  there  could  be  no  control.  Historians 
and  philosophers  were  quoted  in  support  of  the  opinion.  The 
arguments  were  accepted  in  good  faith  by  many — even  by  those 
who  knew  more  or  less  of  the  terrible  conditions  that  exist. 
But  as  in  all  social  changes  it  does  not  matter  what  people 
used  to  think  concerning  reform — even  a  year  or  six  months 
since — we  are  grateful  now  that  the  change  has  taken  place, 
and  that  milestones  have  been  passed  on  the  road  to  control — 
let  us  hope  eradication. 

Formerly,  the  subject  was  thought  of  almost  wholly  from 
the  moral  viewpoint.  The  records  of  manv  American  cities 
are  evidence.  In  Chicago,  in  1908,  the  red-light  district  was 
abolished.  Later  the  same  thing  happened  in  Cleveland.  The 
"stir-up"  in  the  New  York  police  department  on  account  of  the 
complicity  with  prostitution  and  crime  is  well  known.  The 
effort  in  Atlanta  was  given  wide  publicity.  Vice-committees, 
women's  clubs,  social  hygienic  societies,  even  the  "movies," 
in  various  places  fostered  the  agitation  to  abolish  prostitution 
or  at  least  to  obtain  laws  regulating  it.  Political  graft,  police 
corruption  were  always  successful  in  neutralizing  effort,  but 
often  the  enthusiast  had  no  rational  plan  of  action,  and  there- 
fore could  obtain  little  support  from  the  public.  There  was 
"organization"  against  the  volunteer  movement.  Gamblers, 
race-horse  touts,  sporting  men,  proprietors  of  saloons,  dives, 
and  owners  of  houses  of  ill  fame  have  been  opposed  always 
and  in  all  places  to  the  abolition  of  the  district.     It  is  scarcely 


THE    MENACE    OF   VENEREAL   DISEASES  81 

to  be  wondered  at  that  organized  volunteer  effort  could  not 
make  even  the  vestige  of  an  impression  against  such  opposition. 

It  is  to  the  credit,  however,  of  some  states  and  communities 
that  even  before  the  war  progress  was  made.  The  enactment 
of  the  Injunction  and  Abatement  Law  was  a  forward  step. 
Up  to  1916,  twenty-six  states  had  adopted  this  law.  There 
have  been  others  since — I  am  happy  to  say  Mississippi  and 
Louisiana  are  included.  This  law  gives  to  the  citizen  in  any 
community  the  right  to  prevent  by  injunction  the  continued 
operation  of  houses  for  immoral  purpose,  and  it  does  not  re- 
quire that  individuals  before  getting  relief  must  prove  special 
damage.  While  the  injunction  and  abatement  law  varies  in 
text,  the  principle  is  the  same  in  all.  Some  of  these  laws  were 
approved  as  far  back  as  1909,  and  the  experience  of  those 
states  is  evidence  that  the  law  can  be  made  effective.  It  was 
claimed  that  blackmail  would  result.  In  the  records  which  I 
have  looked  over  no  case  of  blackmail  has  come  to  the  notice 
of  any  court. 

In  the  propaganda  for  enactment  of  the  injunction  and 
abatement  law,  and  other  measures  pertinent  to  control,  merci- 
less publicity  has  proved  the  most  effective  means.  As  to 
results,  the  report  of  the  Vice  Committees  of  Baltimore,  1915, 
is  of  value.  Among  the  things  stated  are,  inmates  of  all 
houses  of  this  character  have  been  offered  an  opportunity  to 
enter  the  honorable  life;  several  hundred  girls  each  year  have 
been  saved  from  lives  of  shame ;  conditions  in  hotels  greatly 
improved;  the  white-slave  traffic  practically  eliminated;  social 
diseases  lessened. 

It  will  be  noted  that  these  efforts  were  inspired  largely  by 
the  moral  aspect,  and  where  the  pressure  was  strong  enough 
there  was  success.  In  the  recent  movement  to  eradicate,  the 
recognition  of  the  social  diseases  as  a  health  problem  is  im- 
portant and  is  really  the  first  step  toward  ultimate  eradication. 

It  places  the  responsibility  upon  the  health  department, 
where  it  belongs  logically.  It  makes  definite  the  body  which 
must  put  the  law  into  effect,  and  no  longer  leaves  the  burden 
upon  the  educational  or  police  organizations.  In  May,  1918, 
37  states  had  enacted  laws  requiring  notification  of  these 
diseases,  the  regulations  adopted  being  modeled  after  the  sug- 


82  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

gestions  approved  by  the  Surgeons  General  of  the  Army  and 
Navy  and  the  Public  Health  Service.  Twenty-four  states, 
Mississippi  and  Louisiana  in  the  list,  have  made  definite  ar- 
rangements to  cooperate  with  the  Federal  Government  by 
having  an  officer  of  the  Public  Health  Service  assume  charge 
of  the  work  under  joint  supervision  of  the  United  States 
Service  and  the  State  Health  Department. 

In  the  campaign  for  control  there  will  be  definite  purpose 
along  four  distinct  lines.    These  are : 

( 1 )  Educational :  Acquainting  the  public  with  the  nature 
of  the  diseases  and  the  objects  desired  to  be  accomplished. 

(2)  Law  enforcement:  Securing  cooperation  of  the 
physicians  in  reporting  cases,  and  of  the  police  in  apprehending 
prostitutes,  vagrants,  and  such  other  persons  as  can  be  reason- 
ably suspected  of  having  venereal  diseases  in  communicable 
stages. 

(3)  Propaganda  to  secure  local  funds  for  providing 
detention  homes  and  hospital  facilities  for  isolation  and  treat- 
ment of  venereal  disease  carriers,  who  by  their  habits  are  a 
menace  to  the  public  health. 

(4)  Establishment  of  increased  facilities  for  early 
diagnosis  and  treatment. 

In  general  the  legal  enactments  in  the  various  states  are 
adequate.  Not  only  are  owners,  agents,  or  lessees  of  property 
penalized,  likewise  solicitation,  etc.,  but  the  licensing  of 
transient  hotels  and  rooming  houses,  reporting  of  these 
diseases  to  the  proper  authorities,  and  commitment  to  reform- 
atories are  included.  Correlative  legislation  which  authorizes 
institutions  for  commitment  and  permanent  internment  of  the 
feeble-minded  show  that  the  movement  takes  into  account 
many  things  other  than  the  practice  which  has  been  so  long 
condoned.  There  is  another  phase  worthy  of  note.  Laws 
making  mandatory  the  appointment  of  health  officers  in  all 
municipalities  and  counties,  and  legislative  means  for  the 
expeditious  removal  of  any  officer  who  neglects  or  refuses  to 
enforce  these  laws  are  most  encouraging  signs  that  the  public 
is  in  earnest. 

However,  laws,  no  matter  how  adequate,  are  of  them- 
selves of  no  avail.     For  years  there  have  been  good  statutes 


THE    MENACE    OF    VENEREAL    DISEASES  83 

on  this  subject.  Failure  has  been  traceable  to  lack  of  enforce- 
ment rather  than  to  the  law  itself.  Everywhere  in  the  United 
States  we  seem  satisfied  to  enact  legislation.  It  seems  we 
think  that  is  our  full  duty.  Nothing  can  be  farther  from  the 
truth.  In  fact,  the  inertia  of  the  public  is  so  universal  it  is 
counted  upon  by  those  who  are  opposed. 

As  commercialized  prostitution  is  a  profitable  business, 
real-estate  owners,  many  firms  that  sell  jewelry  and  luxuries, 
the  liquor  interests  share  in  the  profits.  These  are  the  ones 
who  make  an  outcry  against  abolition  of  the  district.  The 
arguments  set  forth  have  an  influence,  especially  where  it  is 
claimed  that  if  not  legalized  the  clandestine  traffic  will  increase. 
Unfortunately  this  is  believd  by  some,  who  honestly  favor 
segregation  because  misled  by  facts. 

Under  ordinary  circumstances,  effective  enforcement  of 
laws  is  most  difficult.  Happily  at  present  there  is  the  support 
of  the  Federal  Government,  which  can  be  relied  upon.  The 
public  is  becoming  convinced  that  control  of  all  communicable 
diseases  is  a  necessity,  and  means  to  the  end  are  justifiable. 
The  immediate  obstacle  which  must  be  overcome  is  treatment 
of  the  sick  or  those  infected.  This  implies  medical  examina- 
tion, diagnosis  by  reputable  physicians,  free  clinics,  hospital 
care,  provision  for  free  arsphenamine,  and  maintenance  not 
only  of  the  institutions  but  for  the  patient. 

These  elements  make  the  situation  tremendously  complex, 
involving  as  they  do  both  civil  and  health  authorities,  and  re- 
quiring a  large  amount  of  money.  The  other  phase  which  is 
even  more  difficult  to  manage  relates  to  employment  for  those 
who  are  not  infected.  The  latter  has  been  the  problem  of  the 
ages,  and,  with  all  our  humanity  and  our  social  welfare 
activities,  we  have  not  yet,  it  would  seem,  found  out  how  we 
may  rationally  make  provision  for  the  women  of  the  district. 
The  care  of  the  sick  can  be  effected  with  a  proper  amount  of 
funds  and  cooperation  of  health  and  civic  authorities.  Local 
and  state  health  and  municipal  officers  should  unite  upon  a 
plan  for  each  municipality  or  county,  and  bear  proportionately 
the  expense.  Where  there  are  equipped  laboratories  the  states 
themselves  can  afford  to  make  and  furnish  free  arsphenamine. 
If  known  to  be  free,  many  would  avail  themselves  of  the 


84  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

treatment.  If  hospitals  and  clinics,  with  necessary  treatment, 
would  be  provided,  examination  and  detention  of  those  who 
are  infected  would  be  easily  solved.  Generally  in  the  dis- 
cussion of  this  phase  it  is  thought  that  women  only  are  referred 
to.  The  new  order  means  not  only  this,  but  includes  both 
sexes.  If  in  addition  to  medical  care  it  could  be  understood 
that  all  the  feeble-minded  would  be  committeed  to  an  institu- 
tion, and  if  the  necessary  arrangements  were  made  for  careful 
and  scientific  examination  of  prostitutes  it  would  be  found  that 
a  large  percentage  are  feeble-minded.  It  would  be  to  the 
benefit  of  the  state  to  segregate  these,  especially  girls  and 
women  who  are  so  afflicted. 

I  understand  that  the  task  seems  a  herculean  one,  especially 
to  the  medical  man  who  knows  how  widespread  these  diseases 
are  and  how  difficult  to  cure.  But  nothing  convinces  like 
success,  and,  to  a  degree  in  the  areas  around  cantonments, 
drastic  programs  during  the  war  accomplished  more  than 
many  thought  possible. 

There  is  one  phase  of  publicity  which  every  one  will  en- 
dorse. It  is  condemnation  of  the  patent  preparations  which 
claim  to  be  "cures"  for  this  form  of  disease.  The  claims  of 
these  so-called  medicines  are  attractively  set  forth,  often  with- 
out a  semblance  of  truth.  So  exaggerated,  in  fact,  that  it 
would  appear  even  the  most  ignorant  would  not  believe,  but, 
strange  as  it  may  seem,  they  have  sufficient  faith  to  invest  their 
dollars  and  even  to  take  the  "stuff"  in  the  hope  of  cure.  I 
don't  know  whether  you  are  familiar  with  any  of  these  adver- 
tisements or  preparations.  There  are  many  plausible  curative 
fakes,  but  none  so  plausible,  none  so  fraudulent  as  some  of 
these.  Any  one  who  knows  of  the  seriousness  of  these 
diseases  will  be  appalled  at  the  promises  on  the  labels  and 
cartons  of  some  exploited  frauds.  The  harm  done  by  these 
preparations  is  hydra-headed — they  keep  some  from  having 
skilled  medical  advice ;  they  offer  quick  cure  which  is  in  nearly 
all  cases  impossible.  The  "patent  medicine"  is  on  the  run; 
it  will  take  much  effort  yet  to  effect  its  final  exit,  but  surely 
every  intelligent  man  and  woman  should  help  in  the  campaign 
to  show  up  the  fraud  and  the  harm  resulting  from  these 
remedies — so-called. 


THE    MENACE    OF   VENEREAL   DISEASES  85 

I  do  riot  see  why  we  can  not  use  the  present  moment  to 
push  to  the  Hmit  in  civic  life  the  same  program  which  the 
army  authorities  have  made  effective.  The  placing  of  these 
diseases  in  the  same  category  with  diphtheria  and  tuberculosis 
should  appeal  to  all — even  to  the  conservative  physician  who 
thinks  it  unethical  or  professionally  impossible  to  report  these 
cases.  I  do  not  see  why  there  should  not  be  money  invested 
in  this  kind  of  protection.  If  a  case  of  cholera  appeared, 
there  would  be  no  lack  of  funds.  These  diseases  are  more 
far-reaching  in  results  on  the  human  race,  if  not  so  imme- 
diately fatal.  If  the  public  is  not  suflficiently  convinced  to  sup- 
port those  agencies  necessary,  then  a  campaign  of  publicity 
should  be  put  into  eflfect. 

History  is  clear  that  the  way  to  promote  a  cause  is  to 
develop  the  economic  side ;  to  show  the  money  waste  involved. 
In  the  field  of  health,  the  workman's  compensation  acts  form 
an  excellent  illustration.  The  "safety  first"  which  followed 
was  only  a  small  portion  of  the  result.  Health  insurance, 
which  is  the  next  logical  economic  step,  will  bring  home  to 
the  employer  and  employee  alike  the  interest  of  both  in  health 
conservation.  Venereal  disease  means  waste — all  sickness  does. 
It  lessens  tremendously  a  man's  working  power.  It  costs  the 
man  himself;  it  costs  the  business  which  employs  him;  it 
costs  the  state,  or  will  do  so,  we  hope.  When  it  does  it  will  go. 
Society  is  beginning  to  get  tired  of  the  alcoholic,  the  feeble- 
minded, and  all  who  are  a  burden  through  the  defects  which 
society  has  tolerated.  The  changed  attitude  means  enforce- 
ment of  those  regulations  which  will  prevent.  It  is  good 
business  to  take  care  of  the  individual  for  the  good  of  the 
community.  It  has  taken  six  thousand  years  to  see  the  light 
of  this  new  day,  but  it  is  here  at  last. 

I  have  emphasized  the  medical  aspect  in  these  brief  state- 
ments, but  not  because  I  disparage  the  effect  and  value  of 
educational  work.  I  realize  that  even  with  adequate  laws  and 
effective  enforcement  of  them,  we  shall  need  for  many  decades 
diligent  and  intelligent  educational  effort.  I  am  glad  that  the 
responsibility  has  been  shifted,  that  no  longer  the  burden  rests 
on  educational  forces  alone,  and  I  hope  that  these  will  con- 
tinue to  organize  and  to  work  as  in  former  years. 


86  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

There  are  many  good  people  who  need  to  be  shown  that 
bHndness,  insanity,  and  other  physical  ills  are  the  result  of 
syphilis  and  gonorrhea.  Many  who  must  be  convinced  that 
for  health  and  efficiency  in  civil  life,  it  is  as  necessary  to  have 
as  drastic  regulations  as  have  been  found  imperative  to  ensure 
health  and  efficiency  in  the  army.  Further,  that  for  efficiency 
in  the  army  the  civil  community  must  be  equally  rigid  in  the 
enforcement  of  what  the  army  authorities  think  necessary. 

We  need  sane  judgment,  kind  hearts,  scientific  direction, 
a  rational  program  for  all  the  different  kinds  of  effort,  and  we 
need  an  enlightened,  insistent  public  sentiment  which  will 
demand  not  only  the  law  but  its  enforcement.  The  problem 
is  age-long.  It  must  be  met  with  the  wisdom  of  the  ages  and 
the  aggressive  methods  of  modern  times. 


THE  GOVERNMENT'S  WAR  ON  VENEREAL 
DISEASES 

FRANK    H.    GARDNER,    M.    D.,    UNITED   STATES   PUBLIC    HEALTH 

SERVICE 

When  the  United  States  Government  was  forced  into  this 
war  it  was  forced  into  two  wars :  The  one  for  the  suppression 
of  autocracy  and  the  other  for  the  elimination  of  all  those 
devitalizing  forces  which  destroy  the  efficiency  and  lower  the 
virility  of  the  American  soldier  and  the  American  citizen. 

It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  social  vice  and  its  accompany- 
ing diseases  are  co-evil  with  human  history  and  co-extensive 
with  human  society,  but  it  remained  for  the  incidents  of  this 
war  to  reveal  to  the  American  people — high  officials,  profes- 
sional men,  and  the  common  populace  alike — the  prevalence 
of  these  diseases,  and  the  economic  loss,  the  physical  dis- 
abilities, and  the  social  depravity  incident  thereto.  It  is  true 
that  we  all  knew  something  of  the  existence  of  these  diseases 
among  the  low  and  outcast  members  of  the  human  race,  but 
any  definite  knowledge  of  them  was  confined  to  the  medical 
profession  and  a  few  social  workers.  But  when  an  army  was 
drafted  into  the  service  from  all  walks  of  civilian  life,  it  was 
found  that  the  one  disqualifying  factor  above  any  other  was 


WAR    ON    VENEREAL   DISEASES  87 

the  venereal  diseases.  And  the  most  startling  fact  of  all  was 
that  six  times  as  many  men  were  so  infected  in  the  civilian 
life  as  in  army  service.  Facing  this  fact  and  realizing  that 
when  the  war  was  over  we  would  have  largely  a  new  set  of 
social  and  civil  conditions,  men  in  high  places  in  the  Govern- 
ment and  in  the  Army  and  Navy  determined  to  find  a  remedy 
for  these  social  and  physical  defects  in  both  military  and 
civilian  life. 

The  whole  subject  had  been  tabooed  in  the  home,  in  the 
pulpit,  in  the  press,  and  in  the  schoolroom.  But  men  like 
President  Wilson,  Secretary  Baker,  and  Secretary  Daniels 
began  to  speak  out,  and  to  call  upon  the  press,  the  school 
master,  and  the  minister  of  religion  to  join  in  the  crusade 
against  social  vice  and  against  venereal  diseases.  The 
Surgeons  General  of  the  Army  and  Navy  and  the  Public 
Health  Service  joined  in  the  fight,  and  called  upon  the  entire 
medical  profession  to  join  in  this  warfare  for  the  suppression 
of  vice  and  the  control  of  these  diseases. 

Congress  was  called  upon  for  both  legislative  action  and 
the  appropriation  of  money  for  this  campaign.  Secretary 
Daniels,  in  his  appeal  to  a  Committee  of  Congress  for  an  ap- 
propriation for  this  work,  says : 

"I  think  that  every  consideration  of  public  safety  calls  for 
the  cooperative  action  we  are  proposing.  I  need  not  tell  you 
of  the  far-reaching  and  varied  damages  that  come  from 
venereal  diseases.  You  know  that  they  are  universal;  that 
they  are  associated  with  sin  and  shame  and  crime;  that  they 
ruin  the  family  and  the  home ;  that  they  are  passed  from  the 
guilty  to  the  innocent ;  that  they  make  men  sterile  and  unable 
to  become  fathers,  and  women  sterile  and  unable  to  become 
mothers;  that  they  destroy  more  young  and  unborn  infants 
than  any  other  cause ;  that  they  place  more  men,  women,  and 
children  in  asylums  for  the  insane,  idiotic,  and  feeble-minded 
than  any  other  cause;  that  they  cripple  the  brain,  the  nerves, 
and  the  joints,  and  deform  and  incapacitate  men,  women,  and 
children  mentally,  morally,  and  physically;  and  that  they 
destroy  individuals,  ruin  homes,  demoralize  communities,  and 
defeat  armies.  With  these  facts  in  mind  I  feel  that  there  is 
every  justification  for  spending  this  sum  in  cooperation  with 
the  states  for  the  control  of  these  diseases." 


88  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

Major  Wm.  F.  Snow,  of  the  staff  of  the'  Surgeon-General 
of  the  Army,  in  a  statement  before  the  same  Congressional 
Committee,  says: 

"We  draw  our  men,  by  the  decision  of  Congress,  from 
every  state  in  the  Union  according  to  a  proportionate  quota 
distribution.  It  was  decided  that  it  was  wise,  so  far  as 
venereal  diseases  are  concerned,  to  accept  as  a  part  of  the 
quota  from  each  state  all  those  persons  infected  with  venereal 
disease  who  reasonably  can  be  treated  in  the  army  and  made 
useful  for  military  service.  That  changed  the  policy,  as  com- 
pared with  past  practice  of  the  Army,  and  it  is  a  vitally  im- 
portant change,  I  think,  in  relation  to  our  combating  these 
diseases.  Approximately  five-sixths  of  these  cases  the  Army 
has  had  to  treat  since  mobilization  were  thus  brought  in  from 
civilian  life.  Each  time  we  have  brought  in  a  large  increment 
of  new  troops  the  rate  in  the  Army  has  increased.  All  of  our 
figures  indicate  that  these  diseases  are  more  prevalent  among 
the  same  class  of  young  men  uncontrolled,  unadvised,  and  un- 
treated, as  many  of  them  are  in  civil  life,  as  compared  to  the 
number  of  cases  among  the  same  class  after  we  have  them  in 
the  Army  under  control,  under  medical  instruction,  under  the 
protection  which  the  Army  has  now  thrown  about  the  man 
even  when  he  is  on  liberty." 

And  of  the  80,000  men  who  had  been  drafted  into  the 
Army  with  these  diseases  he  says : 

"Being  called  into  the  draft  is  the  best  thing  that  could 
have  happened  to  them.  Many  of  them  had  never  been  near  a 
physician.  They  had  received  the  misinformation  which 
medical  charlatans  give,  and  the  kind  of  information  that  all 
of  us,  as  we  have  grown  up,  have  had  about  the  harmlessness 
relatively  of  gonorrhoea,  and  about  the  ease  with  which  it  can 
be  cured  by  a  druggist,  or  by  ourselves  when  we  go  and  buy  a 
patent  medicine  which  is  supposed  to  be  a  sure  cure;  and 
similar  misinformation  about  syphilis  and  how  it  can  be  cured. 
In  the  Army  these  men  are  brought  to  understand  from  the 
education  they  receive,  and  the  treatment,  the  importance  to 
themselves  and  to  the  community  later,  of  their  being  under 
treatment.  Again,  the  taking  of  these  men  into  the  Army  has 
removed  immediately  from  the  community  a  very  considerable 


WAR    ON    VENEREAL    DISEASES  89 

number  of  persons  who  were  carriers  of  venereal  diseases. 
But,  perhaps,  the  most  valuable  influence  of  all  has  been  the 
awakening  of  health  authorities,  and  simultaneously,  the  busi- 
ness men  and  influential  men  and  women  generally,  to  the  fact 
that  this  is  a  communicable  disease  problem;  that  it  can  be 
met  if  we  apply  the  same  scientific  methods  that  we  have 
applied  to  the  control  of  yellow  fever  and  other  diseases.  The 
Medical  Department  of  the  Army  has  done  everything  it  could 
to  aid  in  stimulating  the  interest  of  the  public  in  this  problem, 
because,  as  you  can  see  from  the  administrative  point  of  view, 
the  Surgeon-General  can  do  very  little  about  the  control  of 
venereal  diseases  other  than  treat  those  cases  that  develop, 
unless  he  has  the  cooperation  of  the  public." 

In  response  to  the  widespread  interest  in  the  suppression 
of  those  diseases,  the  Congress  enacted  in  July,  1918,  what  is 
known  as  the  Chamberlain  and  Kahn  law.  The  provisions  of 
this  act  are  briefly  as  follows,  viz. : 

1st.  There  is  created  a  board  to  be  known  as  the  Inter- 
departmental Social  Hygiene  Board,  to  consist  of  the  Secretar>' 
of  War,  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  and  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  as  ex  officio  members,  and  of  the  Surgeon-General 
of  the  Army,  the  Surgeon-General  of  the  Navy,  and  the 
Surgeon-General  of  the  Public  Health  Service. 

2d.  To  establish  in  the  Bureau  of  the  Public  Health 
Service  a  division  of  Venereal  Diseases  to  be  under  a  com- 
missioned officer  of  the  Public  Health  Service. 

3d.  (a)  The  duties  of  this  division  are  to  study  and 
investigate  the  cause,  treatment,  and  prevention  of  venereal 
diesases.  (b)  To  cooperate  with  the  State  Boards  of  Health 
for  the  prevention  and  control  of  such  diseases  within  the 
states,  (c)  And  to  control  and  prevent  the  spread  of  these 
diseases  in  inter-state  traffic. 

4th.  Appropriating  $1,000,000  a  year  for  two  years  to  be 
allotted  to  the  various  states  for  the  use  of  their  state  health 
organizations  in  the  prevention,  control,  and  treatment  of 
venereal  diseases. 

In  order  to  carry  into  effect  the  provisions  of  this  law, 
the  Interdepartmental  Social  Hygiene  Board  has  worked  out 
and  as  rapidly  as  possible  is  putting  into  operation,  in  coopera- 


90  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

tion  with  the  several  states  through  their  health  organizations, 
a  comprehensive  program.  Realizing,  as  this  board  does,  that 
a  stupendous  task  has  been  appointed  to  it,  the  work  is  being 
entered  upon  with  a  view  to  meeting  all  the  conditions  in- 
volved. For  while  the  venereal  diseases  are  the  immediate 
object  or  cause  of  this  campaign,  all  recognize  the  fact  that 
these  diseases  are  but  the  accompaniment — the  exponent  so  to 
speak — of  the  real  trouble.    The  real  trouble  is  social  vice. 

When  this  agitation  was  first  started  the  statement  was 
made  that  this  matter  was  ninety  per  cent  a  moral  question 
and  the  other  ten  per  cent  medical  or  scientific  and  political. 
And  in  order  to  make  the  medical  and  scientific  campaign  a 
success  we  are  calling  upon  the  recognized  moral  and  religious, 
educational,  social,  and  civic  forces  for  the  heartiest  possible 
cooperation. 

We  all  recognize  the  fact  that  the  Church  has  always  been, 
is,  and  will  ever  be  the  bulwark  of  social  morality  and  personal 
purity.  If  the  law  of  Sinai  and  the  teachings  of  the  Nazarene 
were  but  kept  by  all,  as  they  are  by  the  faithful  ones  of  the 
Church,  the  problem  would  soon  solve  itself.  The  Church  is 
now  being  called  upon  to  redouble  its  energy  in  behalf  of  this 
campaign. 

That  mighty  engine  for  moulding  public  opinion,  the  public 
press,  is  also  called  into  play,  and  is  not  disappoining  us,  but 
is  lending  willing  and  mighty  help.  In  a  single  state  in  the 
South  more  than  100  weekly  papers  are  publishing  at  least  a 
column  in  each  issue  for  this  interest. 

Then  the  entire  educational  system  of  the  United  States  is 
embraced  in  the  program,  and  the  important  subject  of  sex 
education  is  receiving  attention.  Along  with  this,  and  really 
as  a  part  of  it,  the  matter  of  sports,  which  has  hitherto  been 
left  to  the  uncertain  and  doubtful  taste  and  initiative  of  the 
young  people  themselves,  is  receiving  the  attention  of  trained 
experts  who  are  trying  so  to  adapt  these  means  of  social  enter- 
tainment and  physical  development  as  to  replace  the  objection- 
able features.  Wholesome  sports  and  wholesome  social  mix- 
ing of  the  sexes  under  proper  supervision  will  go  far  toward 
eliminating  a  perverse  and  prurient  sex  impulse  so  frequently 
found  in  a  large  class  of  young  people,  and  which  if  properly 
controlled  in  the  young  will  not  be  found  in  after-life. 


WAR   ON    VENEREAL   DISEASES  91 

For  carrying  out  the  purpose  of  this  law,  as  it  applies  to 
persons  who  are  already  infected  with  venereal  diseases,  the 
U.  S.  Government  proposes  to  take  this  department  of 
medicine  and  surgery  out  of  the  hands  of  quacks  and 
charlatans,  and  to  standardize  it,  and  put  it  upon  the  high 
plane  upon  which  it  belongs.  It  was  in  this  branch  of  medical 
practice  that  this  term  quack  first  originated,  and  surely  the 
quacks  and  advertisers  who  play  upon  the  credulity  of  the 
ignorant  and  who  fatten  upon  the  miseries  and  misfortunes 
of  humanity — these  sneak  thieves  of  the  medical  profession, 
whose  profits  are  at  the  expense  of  its  honorable  members — 
have  had  their  day. 

The  first  step  for  the  cure  and  control  of  these  cases  is 
to  be  taken  by  the  doctors  to  whom  they  report  for  treatment. 
Let  the  doctors  promptly  report  the  cases  to  the  State  Health 
Officer;  not  the  name  and  address  of  the  patient,  but  the 
number  representing  the  name  and  address,  and,  so  long  as  the 
patient  faithfully  follows  the  doctor's  direction  and  treatment, 
no  other  report  is  necessary.  But  if  that  patient  fails  to  take 
treatment  until  cured,  or  at  least  rendered  non-infectious,  let 
him  be  promptly  reported  to  the  State  Health  Officer  by  name 
and  address,  so  that  officer  may  report  the  case  to  the  County 
Health  Officer,  whose  duty  it  shall  be  to  locate  him  and  see 
that  he  is  treated.  If  this  plan  of  reporting  cases  is  faithfully 
carried  out  by  the  doctors,  and  similar  reports  made  by  drug 
stores  of  their  sales  of  remedies  for  venereal  disease,  is  will  be 
but  a  short  time  until  we  will  have  a  large  percentage  of  the 
carriers  of  venereal  disease  under  observation  and  treatment. 

The  second  step  in  this  work  is  the  establishment  of  free 
clinics  for  the  treatment  of  these  diseases  in  all  important 
centers  of  population.    These  clinics  serve  a  fourfold  purpose : 

(a)  They  are  a  suitable  place  for  administering  the  best 
treatment  to  all  classes  of  patients  infected  with  venereal 
diseases,  (b)  They  afford  the  best  means  for  reaching  a 
large  part  of  the  population  who  especially  need  literature, 
instructions,  etc.  (c)  They  afford  centers  for  social  service 
workers,  community  nurses,  etc.  (d)  They  become  clearing- 
houses for  taking  care  of  that  class  of  irresponsible  patients 
who  have  largely  made  the  problem  at  which  we  are  now 
working. 


92  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

The  third  step  in  the  control  of  venereal  diseases  is  the 
repression  of  vice  and  prostitution.  This  was  once  looked 
upon  by  many  as  a  neecssary  evil,  and  was  commercialized  in 
all  our  populous  centers.  It  has,  like  its  companion  evil,  the 
saloon,  been  clearly  demonstrated  to  be  not  only  not  necessary 
but  at  once  a  moral  abomination,  an  economic  waste,  a  social 
disgrace,  and  a  hygienic  menace.  The  red-light  district,  the 
brothel,  the  prostitute  must  be  abolished !  Law  enactment  and 
law  enforcement  to  this  end  must  be  effected ;  where  neces- 
sary there  must  be  places  of  detention  provided  for  delinquents 
with  a  view  to  their  being  cured  of  disease,  and  also  re- 
habilitated and  made,  if  not  useful,  at  least  self-sustaining 
members  of  society.  Surely  none  must  be  allowed  to  be 
persistent,  willful  carriers  and  propagators  of  these  diseases. 

As  in  every  moral,  social,  educational,  and  medical  interest 
of  these  Southern  States,  we  have  in  this  matter  the  complex 
Negro  problem.  In  the  examinations  of  the  draftees  for  the 
Army,  it  was  found  in  some  cases  that  as  high  as  70  per  cent 
of  the  colored  men  were  infected  with  venereal  diseases. 
Whatever  interest  we  may  feel  in  them,  and  however  hopeful 
we  may  be  of  their  ultimate  future,  the  fact  remains  that  their 
low  average  of  intelligence,  their  lack  of  personal  cleanliness, 
their  lack  of  self-control,  and  their  lack  of  high  social  and 
moral  ideals  render  them  a  menace  to  themselves,  and  to  the 
white  population  as  well.  When  they  were  in  bondage  they 
were  carefully  looked  after  in  small  groups,  and  as  a  race 
were  practically  free  from  what  are  now  their  most  prevalent 
diseases — venereal  diseases  and  tuberculosis.  But,  now,  with 
bad  housing,  bad  hygienic  and  bad  social  conditions,  they  are 
literally  being  consumed  by  these  two  plagues.  This  matter 
has  a  most  important  bearing  at  several  points,  viz. : 

(a)  Economically,  we  are  largely  dependent  on  the 
Negroes  for  help  in  the  house  and  out  of  doors.  These 
diseases  lessen  their  efficiency  as  servants  and  laborers.  These 
diseases  are  expensive  to  deal  with  in  our  own  race,  but  for 
every  dollar  we  lay  down  for  disease  control  in  the  white  race 
we  must  lay  down  two  or  three  more  for  the  work  for  the 
Negro. 


WAR    ON    VENEREAL    DISEASES  93 

(b)  Hygienically,  it  is  easy  to  understand  how  venereal 
diseases  and  tuberculosis  can  be  accidentally  carried  from  the 
Negro  to  the  whites  in  the  homes,  shop,  and  elsewhere,  and 
it  is  also  easy  to  see  how  venereal  diseases  may  be  conveyed 
by  not  more  than  three  carriers  from  the  lowest  Negro 
prostitute  to  a  respectable  white  woman  in  any  community. 

(c)  The  two  extremes  of  overfamiliarity  on  the  one  hand 
and  race  hatred  on  the  other  embarrasses  the  work  in  the 
clinics,  with  social  workers,  and  elsewhere. 

Notwithstanding  these  hindrances  the  work  must  all  be 
carried  on  together,  for  venereal  diseases  will  not  be  eliminated 
until  it  is  all  eliminated  from  all  races  and  nationalities  on 
our  shores. 

In  the  prosecution  of  this  stupendous  undertaking  the 
Government  has  assumed  that  the  medical  profession  will 
join  hands  and  cooperate  heartily;  and  that  largely  without 
pay.  In  this  assumption  it  has  not  been  disappointed.  Just  as 
the  medical  profession  has  always  done,  it  is  doing  now,  not 
measuring  the  task  by  the  pecuniary  returns,  but  by  the  results 
to  suffering  humanity.  The  doctors  with  remarkable 
unanimity  are  responding  to  the  call  and  are  giving  their 
time  and  skill  without  stint  and  without  pay.  All  honor  to 
these  self-denying,  poorly  paid  public  servants,  who,  like  the 
Divine  Master,  go  about  doing  good,  visiting  the  sick,  com- 
forting the  distressed,  helping  the  poor  and  outcast;  surely  all 
the  world  owes  them  a  debt  of  gratitude ! 

Our  Government  to-day  stands  for  a  citizenship  that  is 
physically  fit,  intellectually  sane,  morally  clean,  commercially 
honest,  and  religiously  evangelical,  as  no  other  nation  does  or 
ever  has  in  the  history  of  the  world. 

Some  people,  looking  at  this  matter  of  venereal  disease 
control  out  of  a  limited  horizon,  have  said  that  from  a  Govern- 
ment standpoint  this  is  not  a  moral  question  at  all,  but  purely 
a  medical  one;  in  such  a  view  they  miss  the  spirit  of  men  like 
President  Wilson  and  Secretaries  Daniels  and  Baker,  who  say 
in  the  spirit  of  the  Great  Teacher,  "Go,  sin  no  more  lest  a 
worse  thing  befall  thee."  And,  while  calling  on  the  medical 
profession  to  apply  its  healing  art,  they  are  at  the  same  time 
calling  on  the  church  to  use  its  moral  and  religious  function. 


94  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

and  upon  the  schools  for  better  understanding  of  the  laws  of 
personal  hygiene,  and  upon  social  organizations  for  a  better 
social  standard.  By  so  advancing  step  by  step  we  may  in  a 
little  while  leave  our  social  vice  with  its  disease  and  disgrace 
in  the  regrettable  past  along  with  human  slavery,  the  saloon, 
and  the  brothel.  And  so  when  we  look  at  it  from  this  stand- 
point it  is  but  one  of  the  ordinary  functions  of  Government 
asserting  itself  for  the  common  good. 

If  our  nation  should  get  nothing  out  of  this  great  war  but 
the  realization  of  the  purposes  and  ideals  of  this  campaign, 
we  will  have  been  amply  repaid  for  all  our  outlay  of  blood  and 
treasure. 


IV.     CHILD  WELFARE 


A  Prayer  for  Children 
Child  Welfare  in  Belgium 
Child  Welfare  in  England 


A  PRAYER  FOR  CHILDREN 

"O  THOU  great  Father  of  the  weak,  lay  thy  hand 
tenderly  on  all  the  little  children  on  earth  and  bless 
them.  Bless  our  own  children,  who  are  life  of  our 
life,  and  who  have  become  the  heart  of  our  heart. 
Bless  every  little  child-friend  that  has  leaned  against 
our  knee  and  refreshed  our  soul  by  its  smiling  trust- 
fulness?  Be  good  to  all  children  who  long  in  vain  for 
human  love,  or  for  flowers  and  water,  and  the  sweet 
breast  of  Nature.  But  bless  with  a  sevenfold  blessing 
the  young  lives  whose  slender  shoulders  are  already 
bowed  beneath  the  yoke  of  toil,  and  whose  glad  growth 
is  being  stunted  forever.  Suffer  not  their  little  bodies 
to  be  utterly  sapped,  and  their  minds  to  be  given  over 
to  stupidity  and  the  vices  of  an  empty  soul.  We  have 
all  jointly  deserved  the  millstone  of  thy  wrath  for 
making  these  little  ones  to  stumble  and  fall.  Grant  all 
employers  of  labor  stout  hearts  to  refuse  enrichment 
at  such  a  price.  Grant  to  all  the  citizens  and  officers 
of  states  which  now  permit  this  wrong  the  grace  of 
holy  anger.  Help  us  to  realize  that  every  child  of 
our  nation  is  in  very  truth  our  child,  a  member  of  our 
great  family.  By  the  Holy  Child  that  nestled  in 
Mary's  bosom ;  by  the  memories  of  our  own  child- 
hood joys  and  sorrows ;  by  the  sacred  possibilities  that 
slumber  in  every  child,  we  beseech  thee  to  save  us 
from  killing  the  sweetness  of  young  life  by  the  greed 
of  gain." 

— Walter  Rauschenbusch. 


THE  CHILDREN  OF  BELGIUM* 

MISS  L.  E.  CARTER,  OF  BRUSSELS 

Before  the  war  our  little  country  had  done  well  with  regard 
to  education,  but  when  the  war  broke  out  nearly  everywhere 
our  schools  were  destroyed.  Some  of  the  towns  have  been 
destroyed  entirely.  In  other  towns  the  schools  were  used  by 
the  Germans  as  hospitals  or  for  barracks  or  for  other  purposes. 
One  of  our  great  difficulties  in  carrying  on  the  school  work 
was  the  want  of  clothing.  Our  little  children  in  cold  weather 
had  to  dress  as  warmly  as  possible,  and  even  then  their  cloth- 
ing was  not  enough  to  keep  them  warm.  We  had  to  break 
the  lessons  every  quarter  of  an  hour  to  let  them  play  to  get 
warm  a  little.  But  the  children  wanted  to  be  as  brave  as  their 
soldiers — as  brave  as  their  heroes.  I  remember  when  the 
Senior  Class  in  a  Latin  lesson  were  reading  Julius  Caesar  they 
came  to  the  passage  that  "of  all  the  people  of  Gaul  the  Belgians 
were  the  bravest,"  there  was  almost  a  fight  among  the  pupils 
to  have  the  honor  to  read  that  sentence. 

But  though  they  were  very  brave  the  struggle  was  hard. 
In  spite  of  the  help  that  was  given  us  by  other  countries — 
and  America  gave  us  great  help  with  food  and  clothing — ^but 
in  spite  of  the  good  things  that  were  sent  us  from  your  beauti- 
ful country  and  from  others,  our  children  were  generally 
underfed.  Perhaps  you  have  felt  the  sensation  of  hunger — 
of  not  being  able  to  work  when  this  sensation  was  felt  for 
half  an  hour,  but  with  us  it  was  felt  day  after  day  during  two 
years,  and,  of  course,  we  could  not  require  from  our  pupils 
the  same  attention  to  their  work  as  they  would  give  in  other 
times.  We  had  to  understand  this  and  to  let  them  play  as 
much  as  possible,  and  they  were  quite  unable  to  do  the  in- 
dividual work  at  home  that  they  had  done  before.  Also  that 
weakness  brought  on  in  many  cases,  especially  among  the 
Senior  pupils,  fits  of  fainting.  We  knew  perfectly  well  that 
these  fits  of  faintness  were  brought  on  by  want  of  food.  The 
poor  people  were  well  looked  after  and  the  children  were 
served  in  school.    In  many  cases  the  parents  of  the  well-to-do 

•Printed  from  stenographic  notes. 


98  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

part  of  the  population  would  not  receive  help.  They  wanted 
to  struggle  along  on  account  of  a  feeling  of  dignity,  and  it  was 
very  difficult  to  do  something  for  the  children  of  that  class. 
Some  of  our  Senior  pupils  were  obliged  after  a  time  to 
interrupt  their  studies  for  a  time,  and  there  were  many  cases 
of  breakdown.  Not  only  was  this  weakness  seen  during  the 
study  hours,  but  what  was  very  sad  was  that  during  the 
play  time  little  children  had  not  the  same  possibilities  of  play. 
They  invented  new  games  even  during  the  war,  but  very  often 
they  would  stop  long  before  the  normal  time  because  their 
strength  gave  way.  Of  course  the  little  children  did  not  know 
what  was  happening  to  them,  but  we  knew  and  were  veiy  sad. 
Many  of  our  little  children  were  so  afflicted  with  swelling  of 
the  neck  they  could  not  remain  in  Belgium.  There  was  no 
possibility  of  sending  them  out  to  the  holiday  homes  that  had 
been  created,  and  we  were  obliged  to  accept  the  sacrifice  of 
sending  them  over  to  Holland — of  separating  them  from  their 
parents,  and  this  for  a  long  time — for  two  years  and  in  many 
cases  more. 

In  spite  of  physical  weakness  our  children  worked  and 
kept  on  going  to  school  every  day.  I  will  give  you  the  effect 
of  the  war  on  our  children.  By  statistics  it  has  been  shown 
that  all  of  our  children  are  one  year  backward  from  the  normal 
general  development,  intellectually  as  well  as  physically,  owing 
to  the  war.  Our  boys  have  lost,  on  an  average,  three  pounds 
in  weight,  and  our  girls  four  pounds.  That  is  one  of  the 
results — an  exterior  result — but  I  don't  think  it  is  the  only 
one.  I  think  the  shocks  the  children  have  received  have 
worked  on  their  nervous  system,  and  that  signs  will  appear 
later  on  which  will  be  very  serious  indeed.  The  atmosphere 
in  which  they  lived  for  so  very  long  was  quite  abnormal. 
Instead  of  being  in  an  atmosphere  of  joy  and  freedom  and 
liberty,  they  have  lived  in  an  environment  of  fear,  of  care,  of 
anxiety,  and  of  sorrow.  You  may  imagine,  even  if  you  have 
not  seen  it,  the  state  in  which  the  children  were  when  they 
knew  that  perhaps  during  the  night  they  would  be  obliged  to 
escape  with  their  parents.  Their  little  parcel  of  clothing  and 
necessaries  was  ready  beside  their  bed  in  case  they  should 
have  to  escape  that  very  night.     It  is  not  possible  for  children 


THE    CHILDREN    OF    BELGIUM  99 

to  sleep  soundly  and  well  in  such  circumstances.  Other 
children  were  made  to  escape  with  their  parents,  and  some 
have  been  seen  after  tramping  with  their  mothers,  their  grand- 
fathers and  grandmothers — their  fathers  were  already  away 
at  war — little  children  have  been  seen  after  tramping  for  many 
days,  dying  at  hospitals  and  elsewhere.  These  little  children 
died  of  different  illnesses — died  for  want  of  food — and  it  was 
one  of  the  most  dreadful  sights  to  look  upon,  the  spectacle  of 
those  little  children,  their  eyes  expressing  horror  until  the  very 
last  moment. 

The  war  has  taught  us  many  lessons.  It  was  during  the 
war  that  we  established  in  Belgium  our  first  organization  of 
children's  welfare.  This  child  welfare  system  had  to  give  to 
the  children  in  Belgium — those  who  were  in  need — the  food 
that  they  wanted,  and  to  many  clothes  and  shelter.  We  have 
organized  a  home  for  our  orphan  children.  The  system  is 
one  of  separate  houses  and  separate  homes  where  the  children 
live  as  if  they  lived  in  their  families,  special  attention  being 
given  to  children  who  were  very  delicate.  Since  the  war  broke 
out  there  has  been  the  drafting  of  a  law  for  the  protection  of 
children  which  provides  that  no  infant,  no  baby,  will  be  sent 
to  board  out  of  the  family.  They  will  have  to  remain  with 
their  mothers  or  in  day  nurseries  until  they  are  three  years 
old.  There  will  be  medical  consultations  in  every  town  of 
Belgium  under  the  superintendence  of  doctors  and  nurses. 

I  conclude  not  only  with  thanking  you  for  having  listened 
to  me,  but  thanking  you  for  everything  America  has  done  for 
Belgium.  It  is  due  to  the  efforts  of  the  American  women 
beginning  their  work  as  early  as  August,  1914,  that  Belgium 
was  provided  with  the  food  that  was  absolutely  necessary.  I 
know,  too,  that  not  only  men  and  women  have  helped,  but 
children  also  have  sent  in  gifts  and  clothing  for  our  little  ones. 
\\'ords  are  inadequate  to  express  our  gratefulness  for  the 
generous  help  from  the  American  people  that  made  it  possible 
for  us  to  live  under  war  conditions.  It  is  from  our  hearts 
and  souls  that  we  cry  out,  "Thank  you!" — not  only  to  you 
grown  people,  but  to  the  little  children  who  sacrificed  so  much 
to  help  our  little  ones. 


100  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 


THE  CHILDREN  OF  ENGLAND* 

sir  ARTHUR  NEWSHOLME,  M.  D.,  OF  LONDON 

I  AM  asked  to  speak  particularly  respecting  child  welfare 
work  in  relation  to  democracy  in  England.  Perhaps  the  best 
thing  I  can  do  is  to  get  right  away  to  what  we  have  been  doing 
during  the  war.  But  before  doing  so,  let  me  say  just  a  word 
as  to  the  relative  loss  of  life  in  war  and  in  peace.  During  this 
war  England — the  United  Kingdom  and  colonies  of  England 
— has  lost  something  like  seven  or  eight  hundred  thousand 
lives  given  for  their  country.  That  is  a  stupendous  loss,  and 
there  is  scarcely  a  family  in  the  entire  British  Empire  that 
has  not  reason  to  mourn  for  its  dead  or  for  its  maimed.  Yet 
the  horrors  of  war  are  no  greater  than  those  of  peace.  During 
the  four  years  which  preceded  the  war  over  two  million 
deaths  occurred,  while  during  the  four  years  and  a  half  of  the 
war  only  about  one-third  as  many  deaths  occurred.  It  is  quite 
true  that  the  deaths  of  the  war  were  deaths  of  men  in  the 
prime  of  life,  and  a  large  proportion  of  those  in  the  preceding 
time  of  peace  were  deaths  of  children  and  aged  persons.  But, 
all  the  same,  a  great  many  of  them  were  but  instances  of  a 
vast  proportion  of  preventable  mortality  which  we  have  not 
taken  the  proper  measures  to  prevent. 

The  ideal  of  all  in  regard  to  length  of  life  is  to  die  of  old 
age.  You  remember  the  story  of  the  jester  who  was  arraigned 
before  the  king.  The  king,  unwillingly  obliged  to  condemn 
him  to  death,  said,  "I  will  give  you  one  last  concession.  You 
may  have  twenty-four  hours  to  think  it  over  and  choose  the 
form  of  death  which  you  prefer."  At  the  end  of  that  time 
the  jester  came  back  and  said  to  the  king,  "May  it  please  your 
Majesty,  I  will  die  of  old  age."  That  is  the  intention  of  most 
of  us.  That  is  the  ideal  toward  which  social  workers  and  the 
public  health  service  are  reaching.  There  is  nothing  more 
valuable  than  life  and  health,  but  most  of  us  realize  their  value 
more  fully  in  their  absence. 

Even  before  the  war  we  were  in  England  and  the  colonies 
reducing  the  infant  mortality  rate  very  much.    This  reduction 

•Printed  from  stenogfraphic  notes. 


THE    CHILDREN    OF    ENGLAND  101 

in  our  country  began  about  1900.  Notwithstanding  all  efforts 
made  before  that  time  no  reduction  in  the  mortality  rate  of 
the  first  year  of  life  was  noticeable;  but,  from  about  that  date, 
owing  to  improvements  in  sanitation  and  the  prevention  of 
some  of  the  most  fatal  diseases,  the  death  rate  has  gone  down 
very  much.  Before  that  time  it  was  approximately  150  jier 
thousand ;  since  that  time  it  rarely  reaches  100  per  thousand. 
What  is  most  remarkable  of  all  is  that  notwithstanding  the 
fact  that  we  were  in  the  midst  of  a  great  war,  during  which 
there  were  a  million  and  a  half  women  employed  in  munition 
plants  and  other  industries,  our  nation's  death  rate  among 
infants  continued  to  decline  right  on  through  the  war.  That 
is  a  most  remarkable  fact,  and  the  result  would  never  have 
been  realized  had  it  not  been  for  the  efforts  of  all  in  many 
directions.  It  was  brought  about  not  by  any  one  thing,  but 
by  the  combined  efforts  of  the  whole  population  working  in 
different  ways,  but  all  to  the  same  end. 

I  think  one  factor  in  bringing  about  this  reduction  in  the 
infant  mortality  rate  has  been  the  separation  allowance  for 
the  wives  and  children  of  men  who  have  been  in  the  war.  The 
wife  received  a  minimum  of  $5.50  per  week  with  an  addi- 
tional amount  for  each  child  coming  within  a  certain  age  limit. 
This  was  a  fair  allowance  under  conditions  that  existed  in 
England,  and  as  the  expenses  of  living  went  up  the  allowance 
was  increased.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  this  money  coming 
steadily  into  the  household  and  enabling  the  mothers  to  feed 
their  children  properly,  kept  down  a  great  deal  of  sickness, 
and  reduced  the  rate  of  mortality  among  the  children.  It  is 
only  fair  to  add  that  in  many  instances — I  am  thankful  to 
say  exceptional  instances — the  absence  of  the  husband  enabled 
the  wife  for  the  first  time  in  her  domestic  experience  to  spend 
all  the  money  earned  for  the  family  on  the  welfare  of  the 
family,  for  there  are  many  husbands  who  have  not  yet 
learned  to  appreciate  their  pareiltal  responsibility,  and  spend  a 
far  greater  proportion  of  their  weekly  earnings  outside  of  the 
domestic  circle  than  they  should. 

In  addition  to  this  there  is  another  important  fact  that  has 
a  decided  bearing  on  the  question  of  the  reduction  of  infant 


102  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

mortality — that  is  the  restrictions  on  the  sale  of  alcoholic 
drinks  have  increased  in  our  country.  Those  who  have  studied 
the  situation  have  made  the  public  begin  to  realize  that  there 
is  a  very  close  connection  between  alcoholic  excesses  and  an 
excessive  infant  mortality  rate.  If  the  father  can  not  spend  his 
earnings  for  drink,  he  will  naturally  spend  more  for  rental, 
food,  and  clothing  for  his  children. 

The  decrease  in  the  infant  mortality  rate  was  also  facili- 
tated very  greatly  by  the  universal  effort  to  make  good  the 
losses  occasioned  by  German  submarines.  Nearly  every  head 
of  a  family,  if  he  could  get  hold  of  a  piece  of  waste  ground, 
began  to  till  and  plant.  That  increased  amount  of  open-air 
life  had  a  very  marked  effect  in  increasing  the  health  of  the 
people,  and  the  national  welfare  generally. 

In  addition  to  this,  very  great  effort  was  made  for  the 
common  good  in  establishing  national  kitchens  in  the  larger 
towns,  and  especially  in  London.  These  kitchens  were  carried 
on  by  the  government.  Good,  wholesome  food  was  bought  at 
the  lowest  prices,  well  prepared  and  served  at  the  cost  price. 
The  result  was  that  large  numbers  of  working  women,  who 
had  to  have  their  noonday  meal  away  from  home,  were  greatly 
benefited.  This  was  done  on  a  very  large  scale,  but  the  same 
plan  was  followed  by  many  families,  who  found  that  coopera- 
tive housekeeping  had  many  advantages,  and  could  be  carried 
on  more  economically  than  by  having  separate  kitchens  for 
each  family.  When  the  additional  million  and  a  half  of  women 
engaged  in  well-paid  employment  had  intervals  of  rest  and 
good  meals  at  the  factory  a  great  improvement  was  brought 
about  in  their  condition,  which  produced  a  very  noticeable 
effect  in  bettering  the  condition  of  the  young  children. 

Another  agency  which  has  helped  to  improve  the  condition 
of  mothers  and  children  greatly  is  the  work  of  the  public 
health  nurses.  At  the  beginning  of  the  war  there  were  in 
England  620  of  these  public  health  nurses,  who  visited  the 
mothers  after  the  birth  of  a  child,  and  advised  them  and  helped 
to  promote  the  welfare  of  both  mother  and  child.  At  the  end 
of  the  war  there  were  1,320.  Similarly,  the  records  in  regard 
to  child  welfare  centers,  which  are  securing  for  mothers  the 


THE    CHILDREN    OF    ENGLAND  103 

advantage  of  consultations,  congresses,  etc.,  show  that  these 
and  similar  organizations,  all  leading  toward  the  same  thing, 
have  greatly  increased  in  numbers  and  efficiency.  Before  the 
war  we  had  250  of  these  child  welfare  centers.  Near  the  close 
of  the  war  there  were  1.250  of  them  in  England.  These  repre- 
sent an  enormous  amount  of  increased  voluntary  activity  on 
the  part  of  the  ladies  of  every  class  of  society  who  come  into 
these  centers,  and  are  determined  to  help  the  mothers  and  the 
absent  soldier  and  sailor  husbands  as  much  as  possible  in  taking 
care  of  their  children.  A  strong  wave  of  public  sentiment 
went  through  the  country  upon  receipts  of  appeals  from  the 
soldiers  and  sailors  to  help  make  things  safe  for  the  mothers 
and  children  left  behind,  and  the  ladies  of  all  ranks  responded 
heartily,  and  not  only  established  these  social  centers  in 
N'arious  parts  of  the  country,  but  the  central  government  in 
London,  England,  in  Cardiff,  Wales,  Edinburgh,  Scotland, 
and  Dublin,  Ireland,  have  given  large  amounts  and  made  large 
grants  for  child  welfare  work.  Parliament  has  even  agreed 
that  if  local  authorities  or  voluntary  societies  will  prepare  to 
spend  five  hundred  thousand  dollars  in  increasing  the  number 
of  health  visitors  they  will  give  half  of  that  amount.  We 
know  that  on  a  fifty-fifty  basis  throughout  the  country  there 
will  be  an  enormous  increase  in  the  results  they  can  accom- 
plish. At  the  end  of  the  war  over  a  million  dollars  had  been 
donated  by  the  central  government,  and  a  similar  amount  was 
being  spent  by  local  authorities  in  this  child  welfare  work. 
We  have  found  that  this  cooperation  between  the  central 
government  and  the  local  governments  was  a  great  advantage 
in  securing  additional  workers  throughout  the  country. 

It  has  been  shown  that  something  like  one-fourth  of  all 
the  still  births  and  about  one-fourth  of  all  the  deaths  that 
occur  during  the  first  week  after  live  births  are  due  to  syphilis. 
Syphilis  is  one  of  the  two  great  venereal  diseases  in  men, 
which  are  usually  caused  by  sexual  immoralities,  and  which 
unfortunately  are  not  confined  to  the  persons  who  are  guilty 
of  the  immorality.  The  effects  are  visited  on  their  innocent 
wives  and  children,  and  produce  most  harmful  results  which 
pass  on  from  one  generation  to  another.     Because  of  the  war 


104  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

we  have  been  made  more  alive  to  the  necessity  of  doing  some- 
thing to  stamp  out  this  evil.  There  is  not  a  town  in  England 
and  Wales  in  which  public  meetings  have  not  been  held  and 
the  evils  resulting  from  these  terrible  diseases  have  not  been 
laid  bare.  Any  one  who  sins  in  the  future  will  sin  with 
actual  knowledge,  and  not  because  of  ignorance  or  lack  of 
instruction. 


V.    RACE  RELATIONS 


The  Congress  Resolution  on  Lynching 

The  Program  of  the  Congress  on  Race  Relations 

Introductory  Statement 

The  Outlook 

Inter-Racial   Cooperation   and   the   South's  New 
Economic  Conditions 

The  Call  of  the  South  to  Prevent  Lynching 


RESOLUTION  ON  LYNCHING 

ADOPTED    BY    THE    SOUTHERN    SOCIOLOGICAL    CONGRESS 

IN   ANNUAL   SESSION   AT   KNOXVILLE,    TENN., 

MAY  12,  1919 

The  Southern  Sociological  Congress  strongly  con- 
demns lynching  and  mob  rule,  which  are  unAmerican 
and  sub\'ersive  of  law  and  order.  We  pledge  our- 
selves to  do  everything  possible  to  prevent  lynching, 
and  we  call  upon  the  editors  of  the  public  press,  the 
ministers,  the  teachers,  and  other  leaders  responsible 
for  creating  public  sentiment  to  proclaim  against  this 
practice  which  constitutes  both  a  disgrace  and  menace 
in  our  own  land,  and  also  discredits  American  democ- 
racy abroad;  and  we  urge  the  immediate  exercise  of 
all  possible  state  and  federal  power  to  put  a  speedy 
end  to  these  outrages  throughout  the  country. 


THE   PROGRAM   OF  THE   SOUTHERN   SOCIOLOG- 
ICAL CONGRESS  FOR  THE  IMPROVEMENT 
OF  RACE  RELATIONS 

At  the  suggestion  of  President  Wilson  the  following 
Program  for  the  Improvement  of  Race  Relations  was  pre- 
sented to  the  Governors'  Conference,  Salt  Lake  City,  Utah, 
August  20  ,1919: 

Recognizing  that  the  Negro  is  a  permanent  and  increas- 
ingly important  factor  in  the  development  of  our  national  life, 
the  Southern  Sociological  Congress  considers  the  solution  of 
the  problem  of  race  relations  as  the  most  delicate  and  difficult 
single  task  for  American  democracy.  We  believe  that  no  en- 
during basis  of  good-will  between  the  white  and  colored 
peoples  in  this  country  can  be  developed  except  on  the  funda- 
mental principles  of  justice,  cooperation,  and  race  integrity. 
The  obligations  of  this  generation  to  posterity  demand  that  we 
exert  our  utmost  endeavor  to  preserve  the  purity  of  our 
democratic  ideals  expressed  in  the  American  Constitution,  as 
well  as  the  purity  of  the  blood  of  both  races.  With  this  belief 
the  Southern  Sociological  Congress  has  worked  out  a  program 
for  the  improvement  of  race  relations  which  we  respectfully 
submit  to  the  Conference  of  Governors  in  the  earnest  hope 
that  this  body  of  distinguished  leaders  may  lend  its  powerful 
influence  toward  making  this  program  effective  throughout 
the  Union. 

THE  PROGRAM   IS: 

First,  that  the  Negro  should  be  liberated  from  the  blight- 
ing fear  of  injustice  and  mob  violence.  To  this  end  it  is 
imperatively  urgent  that  lynching  be  prevented : 

1 .  By  the  enlistment  of  Negroes  themselves  in  preventing 
crimes  that  provoke  mob  violence. 

2.  By  prompt  trial  and  speedy  execution  of  persons  guilty 
of  heinous  crimes. 

3.  By  legislation  that  will  make  it  unnecessary  for  a 
woman  who  has  been  assaulted  to  appear  in  open  court  to 
testify  publicly. 


108  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

4.  By  legislation  that  will  give  the  governor  authority  to 
dismiss  a  sheriff  for  failure  to  protect  a  prisoner  in  his  charge. 

Second,  that  the  citizenship  rights  of  the  Negro  should  be 
safeguarded,  particularly : 

1.  By  securing  proper  traveling  accommodations. 

2.  By  providing  better  housing  conditions  and  preventing 
extortionate  rents. 

3.  By  providing  adequate  educational  and  recreational 
facilities. 

Third,  that  closer  cooperation  between  white  and  colored 
citizens  should  be  promoted  (without  encouraging  any  viola- 
tion of  race  integrity)  : 

1.  By  organizing  local  committees,  both  white  and 
colored,  in  as  many  communities  as  possible  for  the  considera- 
tion of  interracial  problems. 

2.  By  the  employment  of  Negro  physicians,  nurses,  and 
policemen  as  far  as  practicable  in  work  for  sanitation,  public 
health,  and  law  enforcement  among  their  own  people. 

3.  By  enlisting  all  agencies  possible  in  fostering  justice, 
good-will,  and  kindliness  in  all  individual  dealings  of  the  mem- 
bers of  one  race  with  members  of  the  other. 

4.  By  the  appointment  of  a  standing  committee  by  the 
governor  of  each  state  for  the  purpose  of  making  a  careful 
study  of  the  causes  underlying  race  friction  with  the  view  of 
recommending  proper  means  for  their  removal. 

SOUTHERN  SOCIOLOGICAL  CONGRESS 

Theodore  D.  Bratton,  President. 
J.  E.  McCuLLOCH,  Secretary. 


INTRODUCTORY  ADDRESS* 

JAMES    HARDY    DILLARD,    D.    LITT.,    LL.    D.,    IN    PRESIDING    OVER 
THE  RACE  RELATIONS  SECTION 

So  far  as  I  know,  the  first  time  that  representatives  of  both 
races,  wishing  well,  meaning  well,  and  wanting  good  to  our 
country,  ever  met  together  for  frank  and  honest  talk  was  at 
the  Atlanta  conference  of  this  section  of  the  Southern 
Sociological  Congress  six  years  ago.  That  was  a  very  remark- 
able meeting.  Each  year  since  that  time  the  Congress  has 
had  such  a  section  as  this.  That  it  is  good  to  have  such  a 
meeting  I  am  sure  nobody  who  has  ever  attended  one  of  them 
would  doubt  for  one  moment.  I  am  glad  to  welcome  all  of 
us  here  again  this  year,  because  each  year  marks  another  step 
in  the  progress  of  race  relationship  in  our  Southern  States, 
and  it  is  good  that  each  year  we  should  have  an  opportunity 
of  seeing  "where  we  are  at." 

I  should  like  to  make  two  statements.  One  of  them  is 
this:  Never  in  the  history  of  the  world  has  any  race  in  the 
same  length  of  time  made  such  progress  in  physical,  intel- 
lectual, and  moral  improvement  as  the  colored  race  has  done 
in  the  last  sixty  years.  Such  a  statement  does  not  mean  that 
there  must  not  still  be  a  forward  movement  in  all  these  lines. 
There  are  still  thousands  who  are  uneducated,  thousands  who 
are  very  poor  and  in  need  of  moral  advancement.  When  I 
say  that  the  history  of  the  world  shows  no  instance  in  the 
same  length  of  time  of  such  improvement  along  all  human 
lines,  I  am  not  saying  it  in  the  way  of  flattery  or  in  the  way  of 
making  any  one  feel  that  efforts  should  cease,  but  simply  as 
a  fact. 

Another  statement  I  should  like  to  make  is  this:  We  are 
apt  to  think  that  our  own  time  and  our  own  nation  are 
excessively  peculiar,  but  there  have  been  race  problems  all  over 
the  world.  Now,  I  believe  it  to  be  true  that  never  before  in 
history  during  the  short  period  of  sixty  years  have  two  races — 
thrown  together  as  these  two  races — been  known  to  reach 
such  an  approach  toward  satisfactory  adjustment.     We  have 

*Abbreviated  from  stenographic  notea. 


110  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

certainly  not  reached  perfection,  but  I  do  say  that  the  two 
races,  considering  the  relations  with  which  they  started  sixty 
years  ago,  considering  all  the  bad  things  that  have  been  said 
and  done,  have  within  the  last  sixty  years  made  an  approach 
toward  sensible  cooperation  and  mutual  good-will  such  as 
history  does  not  show  anywhere  else. 

We  forget  that  a  period  of  fifty  or  sixty  years  is  a  short 
time  in  history.  We  forget  that  habits  of  thought  and  habits 
of  feeling  are  not  changed  overnight.  It  takes  time  for  indi- 
vidual habits  of  thought  and  individual  habits  of  feeling  to 
change.  It  takes  even  longer  for  the  habits  and  morals  and 
customs  of  a  whole  people  to  change,  and  we  have  got  to  be 
patient,  as  Carlyle  said,  yet  a  while. 

I  have  watched  each  year,  especially  during  the  last  twelve 
or  fifteen  years,  this  question  of  race  relationship  in  the  South. 
I  have  been  over  the  South  from  time  to  time,  have  talked 
with  the  people  of  both  races  and  in  all  conditions  of  life. 
I  am  sure  that  each  year  has  marked  a  forward  step  towards 
good  relationship  between  the  races.  We  are  here  in  the  South 
together,  we  are  going  to  stay  together,  and  the  sensible  people 
of  both  races  know  and  feel  and  believe  more  and  more  that 
it  is  much  better  for  us  to  stay  here  in  good  fellowship  and 
cooperation  than  in  hostility.  That  was  a  beautiful  prayer 
with  which  we  opened  the  meeting  this  morning,  "Live  to- 
gether and  love  together."  Let  us  live  together  in  good-will. 
Nobody  can  predict  the  future,  but  we  all  know  what  we  ought 
to  do  to-day  and  to-morrow,  and  we  know  that  every  human 
being  should  have  a  fair  chance  to  develop.  Those  who  have 
been  working  for  the  improvement  of  the  colored  people  in 
education  and  in  other  ways,  knowing  that  only  by  steady 
processes  can  right  relations  be  established  in  our  midst,  have 
a  right  to  feel  encouraged.  Last  week  there  was  an  informal 
meeting  of  the  white  superintendents  of  education  from  all  the 
states  of  the  South,  and  they  bore  testimony  to  the  growth  of 
sentiment  for  appropriations  of  public  funds  for  the  education 
of  the  colored  children. 

We  have  just  passed  through  a  great  war.  The  colored 
people  have  been  called  upon  to  take  their  part  in  the  nation's 
various  activities,  and  I  have  yet  to  hear  any  informed  person, 


INTRODUCTORY    ADDRESS  111 

North  or  South,  who  does  not  bear  witness  to  the  fact  that  the 
colored  people  have  been  doing  their  part  in  the  field  and  at 
home.  I  recently  took  a  trip  through  the  South,  met  hundreds 
of  workers,  white  and  colored,  heard  their  testimony  as  to  the 
amount  of  money  raised  for  Red  Cross  work,  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
work,  and  all  sorts  of  war  work,  and  the  statements  of  the 
subscriptions  from  the  colored  people  were  amazing.  After 
such  an  exhibition  of  patriotism  as  this  and  such  cooperation, 
it  must  follow  that  the  relations  between  the  races  are  going 
to  be  further  improved.  I  believe  this  to  l)e  true  in  spite  of 
what  some  people  of  both  races  are  saying.  I  believe  the 
South,  certainly  the  thinking  South,  has  come  to  the  con- 
viction more  than  ever  that  justice,  fairness,  and  good  feeling 
are  the  best  way. 

The  world  has  been  suflFering  greatly  from  nervousness. 
The  South,  both  white  and  colored,  has  shared  in  this  nervous- 
ness. We  must  not  allow  ourselves  to  become  hysterical.  The 
good  work  that  has  been  started  must  be  kept  going.  Let  us 
remember  and  be  thankful  that  the  great  masses  are  every- 
where going  about  their  own  business.  It  is  the  relatively 
few  who  make  trouble.  These  we  must  make  more  effort  to 
influence  and  improve.  We  must  all  try  to  make  conditions 
better.  There  is  too  much  work  to  be  done  for  us  to  quarrel. 
Fairness  must  prevail  on  each  side,  and  men  must  learn  to 
think  well  of  each  other,  while  recognizing  and  respecting 
differences. 

One  of  the  best  ways  of  doing  that  is  to  get  together  as 
we  have  come  together  here  this  morning.  Let  us  listen  to  the 
people  who  are  interested  in  this  work,  who  have  thought 
about  the  matter  for  a  long  time  and  have  come  here  to  speak 
to  us  frankly  and  at  the  same  time  in  a  spirit  of  good  feeling. 
In  all  of  these  meetings  of  the  Sociological  Congress  we  have 
never  had  the  slightest  unpleasantness,  never  the  slightest 
disturbance  or  misunderstanding,  because  all  have  spoken  in  a 
spirit  of  wanting  to  be  helpful.  If  we  want  to  be  friends  we 
can  say  things  frankly.  It  does  no  good  to  use  camouflage. 
What  we  want  is  knowledge  and  understanding. 

I  said  that  nobody  could  prophesy,  but  I  feel  like  saying 
this  much :   it  is  my  firm  belief  that  it  is  entirely  possible  for 


112  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

the  two  races  in  the  South  to  live  together  harmoniously  on 
terms  of  cooperation  and  friendship  with  a  satisfactory  ad- 
justment of  the  differences  on  both  sides.  We  all  know  that 
race  is  a  fact.  We  accept  it  as  a  fact.  We  also  know  that 
the  influences  and  forces  of  education  and  religion  are  facts. 
So  let  us  day  by  day,  as  we  see  the  next  step,  do  our  part  in 
forwarding  the  progress  of  these  two  great  means  for  human 
welfare,  education  and  religion;  for  these  are  the  only  true 
and  permanent  adjusters. 


THE  OUTLOOK 


PROFESSOR  J.  L.  KESLER,  PH.  D.,  Y.   M.  C.  A.   COLLEGE, 
NASHVILLE,  TENN, 

The  outlook  isn't  all  one  could  wish.  There  are  clouds  in 
our  sky.  But  only  yesterday,  while  night  was  still  heavy  on 
the  hills,  I  heard  a  woodthrush's  note  mingle  with  a  whip- 
poorwill's  song.  Like  that  I  seem  to  hear  in  the  darkness 
the  notes  of  breaking  day,  and  every  breath  is  a  challenge  to 
justice  for  a  new  world  order,  as  we  promised  in  war  days, 
in  which  all  weak  or  backward  peoples  shall  cease  to  be 
exploited  by  the  strong,  and  democracy  shall  really  come, 
according  to  promise,  to  all  peoples  and  races  among  us. 

The  race  problem,  public  or  private,  industrial  or  institu- 
tional, is  a  human  problem.  Until  we  face  the  issue  as  human 
in  its  human  relations ;  until  we  think  of  all  citizens  as  human 
beings  with  human  rights,  human  interests,  and  human  possi- 
bilities; until  we  insist  upon  equality  of  opportunity — 
economic,  industrial,  educational — equality  before  the  law, 
equal  sanitary  provision,  equal  protection  of  person  and 
property;  until  we  become  conscious  of  a  common  brother- 
hood, and  cease  to  exploit  the  weak  and  to  treat  them  as 
chattels  and  property;  until  we  play  fair  and  put  justice  into 
our  program  for  less  fortunate  individuals  and  races:  until 
we  put  democracy  into  our  own  life  as  we  speed  its  splendid 
hope  to  the  world,  we  are  not  even  in  sight  of  a  solution,  and 
futility  faces  our  tasks  of  reform. 


THE    OUTLOOK  113 

It  is  not  simply  a  Negro  problem.  It  is  also  a  Caucasian 
problem.  It  is  not  simply  the  "white  man's  burden."  It  is 
also  the  black  man's  burden.  It  is  a  problem  of  both  races. 
It  is  mutual.  Its  solution  means  mutual  understandings  and 
adjustments.  It  can  never  be  settled  by  proxy.  It  can  only 
be  settled  by  participation.  It  means  mutually  a  more  generous 
sympathy  and  respect,  without  which  there  can  be  no  common 
standing  ground.  Hate,  distrust,  suspicion  are  grounds  of 
alienation.  Love,  confidence,  respect  alone  can  build  a  loyalty 
and  stability  for  racial,  national,  or  international  solidarity  and 
strength.  It  means,  therefore,  not  only  new  insights  and 
ideals,  but  new  attitudes,  both  personal  and  public,  and  a  more 
delicate  regard  and  consideration  of  racial  courtesies.  That 
race  which  fails  to  respond  to  fine  courtesy  is  already  insolvent 
and  bankrupt  of  preeminence.  This  new  attitude  must  not 
only  be  intellectually  allowed  by  the  white  people,  it  must  be 
consciously  felt  and  communicated,  so  that  a  new  atmosphere 
of  dignity  and  freedom  and  possibility  shall  meet  and 
strengthen  the  aspiration  of  the  Negro  race  and  superinduce 
a  conscious  self-respect  and  hope.  By  some  such  means  alone 
may  the  perils  of  two  segregated  races,  living  in  the  same 
territory,  with  mutual  interrelations,  be  reduced  to  a  minimum. 

The  greatest  prejudice,  with  its  incurable  blindness,  is 
found  in  the  lowest  types  of  both  races.  They  occupy  the 
danger  zone,  and  they  are  in  contact  with  each  other.  The 
finer  types  of  both  races  are  thinking  in  larger  terms.  More 
generous  sympathies  and  more  practical  and  constructive 
programs  emerge  for  the  healing  of  past  years  in  propor- 
tion to  enlightenment  and  vision.  They  are  our  hope,  but  they 
are  not  in  contact  with  each  other.  What  we  need  every- 
where and  among  all  races  is  a  more  general  intelligence  and  a 
closer  human  adjustment.  With  the  disappearance  of  igno- 
rance and  its  paralyzing  antagonisms  our  problems  will  be 
greatly  simplified.  But  ignorance  goes  a  thousand  fathoms 
deeper  than  illiteracy,  and  it  will  take  the  highest  type  of 
culture  to  eradicate  it  and  save  us  from  its  peril  and  doom. 
There  isn't  any  hope  while  ignorance  holds  its  scepter  above 
our  heads  and  flaunts  its  red  flag  of  hate. 


114  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

The  white  people  have  not  always  in  all  sections  thought 
together  about  our  Negro  population.  For  one  part  of  the 
country  to  think  of  them  in  one  way  and  another  part  to  think 
of  them  in  another  way,  while  perfectly  natural,  is  most  un- 
fortunate for  both  sections  and  both  races.  Every  divisive 
factor  tends  to  weaken  the  nation's  program  of  good-will  to 
all  of  its  citizens.  While,  therefore,  on  account  of  their 
numbers  in  the  South,  they  may  be  thought  of  as  creating  a 
problem  peculiarly  Southern,  yet  on  account  of  the  oneness  of 
the  nation  and  the  oneness  of  humanity  the  sectional  feeling 
and  division  of  sentiment  must  be  merged  into  a  national 
unanimity.  There  is  no  other  solution.  For  what  is  of  in- 
terest to  one  part  of  the  country  is  of  interest  to  other  parts 
of  the  country.  We  are  one  people,  however  many  nation- 
alities or  races  we  represent.  We  are  one  nation,  however 
widely  separated  by  color  or  climate  or  craft.  No  part  sufifers 
but  every  part  suffers.  No  part  limps  but  every  part  shambles 
and  halts  in  its  progress.  In  the  deepest  sense,  therefore,  it  is 
a  national  problem. 

There  is  no  hope  of  unanimity,  however,  except  on  grounds 
that  are  fair  and  just  and  generous.  No  partisan  bitterness, 
no  sectional  bias,  no  racial  prejudice,  no  selfish  insolence  may 
enter  into  this  larger  hope.  A  general  friendliness  is  to  take 
the  place  of  racial  antipathies.  All  citizens  are  to  be  given  the 
privilege  of  rising  to  their  full  height  as  human  beings. 
Intelligence  must  dominate  public  sentiment  and  a  kindlier 
religion  move  in  the  minds  of  men. 

There  is  no  hope  for  the  South  if  one-third  of  its  popu- 
lation is  to  remain  undeveloped  and  inefficient.  If  the  sub- 
merged third  is  to  remain  ignorant,  the  South  will  not  only 
fail  of  one-third  of  its  potential,  but  the  other  two-thirds  will 
descend  in  the  scale.  If  unsanitary  conditions  and  disease  are 
allowed  to  plague  one-third  of  the  population,  the  other  two- 
thirds  can  not  escape  the  contagion.  No  community  is  safe  so 
long  as  there  is  one  neglected  spot  within  it.  No  race  is  safe 
from  every  wretchedness  so  long  as  it  allows  a  wretch  of  alien 
race  beside  its  door  to  remain  uncared  for  and  unprotected. 
This  is  true  economically,  industrially,  socially,  morally. 
Every  injustice  to  the  Negro  is  an  injury  to  the  white  man 
and  imperils  the  best  interest  of  the  national  life. 


THE   OUTLOOK  115 

If  the  Negro  is  to  live  among  us,  then  we  must  give  him 
a  chance,  and  an  equal  chance  with  all  others — not  by  handing 
things  down  to  him,  but  by  helping  him  to  get  up;  not  by 
working  for  him,  but  with  him ;  not  by  tips  and  charity,  but 
by  a  fair  wage,  just  treatment,  and  proper  recognition  of  his 
worth.  We  give  him  an  open  road  and  a  fair  chance  every- 
where to  spend  his  dollar.  We  ought  to  give  him  everywhere 
an  equal  chance  to  earn  it.  He  asks  no  more,  he  deserves 
no  less. 

The  Negro  is  here  to  stay.  He  touches  at  every  angle 
every  public  enterprise — business,  industry,  politics,  education, 
religion,  courts  of  justice,  public  welfare  organizations,  social 
work.  Living  together  we  have  innumerable  contacts  which 
must  be  mediated  for  the  mutual  advantage  of  both  races.  It 
is  necessary  that  this  shall  not  only  be  fair  and  just  but 
cooperative  and  efficient.  It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  just 
anything  will  do  for  the  Negro ;  that  he  does  not  understand, 
does  not  see.  He  does  see  and  he  does  not  forget.  Nature 
does  not  forget  either.  She  fixes  the  penalty  on  the  spot  of 
the  crime.  "The  moral  law,  the  nature  of  things,"  as  Emerson 
says,  "keeps  its  eyes  wide  open." 

1.       EDUCATIONAL  POLICY  FUNDAMENTAL 

Our  educational  policy  is  fundamental.  We  have  been 
accustomed  to  consider  all  moneys  spent  on  Negro  education 
as  a  gift,  and  to  congratulate  ourselves  on  our  generosity,  since 
in  the  last  fifty  years  his  taxes  were  but  a  small  part  of  his 
educational  apportionment.  This  attitude  is  changing.  Edu- 
cation is  an  investment  according  to  needs  and  not  according 
to  tax  receipts.  As  a  citizen  the  Negro  deserves  and  necessity 
requires  that  he  should  have  equal  educational  opportunity 
with  white  citizens. 

In  the  last  fifty  years  the  South  has  but  meagerly  provided 
for  any  of  her  children.  As  representative  of  what  we  have 
been  doing,  though  we  are  beginning  to  do  better  in  some 
places,  in  1911-12  the  scholastic  per  capita  in  Cahfornia  was 
$36.30;  in  Massachusetts,  $25.40:  in  New  York,  $25.00; 
while  in  North  Carolina  it  was  $6.14;  South  Carolina,  $6.92; 
and  in  no  Southern  state  did  it  rise  but  a  few  cents  above 


116  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

$7.00.  Still  this  does  not  relieve  us  entirely  from  censure  for 
the  too-great  discrimination  between  the  races.  The  average 
educational  per  capita,  1911-12,  between  the  ages  of  six  and 
fourteen  in  the  South  for  white  children  was  $10.32;  for 
black  children,  $2.89.  The  greatest  discrepancy  was  in 
Louisiana,  where  it  was  $13.73  for  every  white  child,  and 
only  $1.31  for  every  black  child.  Here,  too,  illiteracy  is 
highest  for  both  races,  14.4%  for  the  white,  and  48.4%  for 
the  black.  South  Carolina  comes  next  with  $10.00  to  $1.44 
per  capita,  and  an  illiteracy  of  10.3%  to  38.7%.  These 
figures  have  been  changed,  but  too  great  a  difference  still 
remains.  Everywhere  there  is  the  greatest  discrimination 
coincident  with  the  highest  illiteracy  and  the  greatest  density 
of  Negro  population.  No  wonder  that  the  Negro  is  crying  out 
for  better  protection,  for  better  education,  better  economic 
and  living  conditions.  No  wonder  that  he  has  been  migrating 
to  the  North  half-million  strong  to  better  his  chances  and  the 
chances  of  his  children. 

Those  who  speak  of  giving  the  Negro  in  education  "the 
crumbs  that  fall  from  the  white  man's  table"  need  to  finish  the 
parable,  "and  he  lifted  up  his  eyes  in  torment." 

Private  and  denominational  schools  have  in  property  and 
permanent  funds  over  $28,000,000  with  an  income  of  $3,- 
000,000.  But  only  4%  of  Negro  children  attend  these  schools. 
What  does  this  mean?  It  means  that  if  Negro  children  are 
ever  to  be  educated,  they  will  have  to  be  educated  in  public 
schools  provided  by  public  taxes,  and  made  effective  by  com- 
pulsory attendance.  This  is  the  heaviest  responsibility  and 
obligation  of  the  educational  forces  of  the  South — providing 
adequate  schoolhouses,  equipment,  money,  teachers,  and  keep- 
ing the  standards  high  not  alone  to  eliminate  illiteracy,  but  to 
overcome  ignorance  and  to  provide  training  for  appreciation, 
character,  efficiency ;  to  develop  good  citizenship  in  the  Negro 
not  simply  for  safety  and  suppression  of  crime,  but  for  race 
realization  in  sanitary,  moral,  and  industrial  progress — mak- 
ing crime  impossible  by  eradicating  or  leaving  behind  the 
criminal  instincts. 


THE   OUTLOOK  117 

2.      SOCIAL  EQUALITY  AN  IGNIS  FATUUS 

Those  who  want  to  keep  the  Negro  down  need  to  get  up 
themselves.  Those  whose  social  position  is  unquestioned  need 
not  be  concerned  about  "social  equality."  General  social 
equality  is  an  ignis  fatuus.  There  isn't  any  such  thing  any- 
where in  any  race.  In  all  races  there  are  higher  and  lower, 
according  to  merit,  and  social  intermingling  is  attracted  by 
compatibility,  congeniality,  genuine  community  of  interest, 
or  it  is  pure  social  camoiiflage  and  sham.  In  the  South  neither 
the  Negroes  nor  the  white  people  want  to  intermingle  socially. 
There  are,  perhaps,  a  few  exceptions.  I  am  speaking  of  the 
rank  and  file.  Racial  integrity  and  social  separateness  are 
desired  by  both.  This  social  separateness  by  general  agree- 
ment presents  no  implication  of  either  racial  valuation  or 
indignity.  The  whole  question  may  be  relegated  to  the  low 
politician  and  the  junk  heap. 

3.       EQUALITY    OF    OPPORTUNITIES   AND    CONVENIENCES 

What  the  Negro  does  want  and  what  the  best  white  people 
of  the  South  want  for  him  is  an  equal  chance  for  personal 
and  social  development,  equal  protection  and  security  under 
the  law,  equal  opportunity — economic,  industrial,  educational; 
equal  courtesies,  equal  conveniences  and  comforts  in  street 
cars,  railway  coaches.  And  this  he  has  never  had.  When  he 
pays  the  same  fare  he  wants  the  same  service.  He  ought  to 
have  it.  He  likes  a  separate  coach  among  his  own  people 
just  as  we  do,  but  he  does  not  want  an  inferior  coach.  What 
he  loathes  and  detests  is  the  constant  reminder  that  he  is 
inferior,  that  anything  is  good  enough  for  a  "nigger,"  that 
sanitation  and  sewerage  and  police  protection  and  paved  streets 
and  parks  and  playgrounds  are  not  necessary  for  him,  that 
moral  leprosy  and  segregated  vice  may  preempt  territory  in 
his  community  and  be  immune  from  civic  interest  and  disturb- 
ance— nobody  cares,  that  he  is  discriminated  against  not  on 
account  of  merit  but  on  account  of  color,  that  his  wife  or 
daughter,  if  she  is  attractive  or  beautiful,  is  not  safe  from 
improper  suggestions  and  attentions  on  account  of  lack  of 
racial  respect  and  honor. 


118  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

4.     interracial  respect  necessary 

Respect!  Here  is  the  solution — interracial  respect.  For 
lack  of  it  both  races  are  in  peril.  Between  the  social  worlds 
of  these  two  races  a  great  gulf  is  fixed  so  that  there  is  no 
restraining  modesty.  Who  is  in  danger?  Not  the  Negro 
woman  alone.  Sons  of  white  men  walk  the  danger  zone  where 
respect  is  lacking  and  noble  natures  fall  under  the  paralysis  of 
passion.  Moral  safety  demands  a  deep  and  abiding  respect 
for  personality  interracial  and  among  all  intergraded  social 
levels,  if  we  are  to  escape  the  moral  backwash  between  races 
and  classes  of  society.  Here  we  need  a  wider  and  deeper 
democracy.  We  may  be  separate  as  races  or  classes  or  crafts, 
but  one  as  human  beings  and  citizens.  But  in  all  cases  mutual 
respect  is  the  center  and  citadel  of  our  safety  and  life.  This 
conscious  democracy  of  the  rights  of  mankind,  as  human 
beings,  is  fundamental  and  final.    Jesus  is  right. 

5.     better  times  coming 

A  large  number  of  the  Negroes  are  accumulating  property, 
are  living  in  good  homes,  clean,  sanitary,  with  the  comforts 
and  some  of  the  luxuries  of  life.  They  love  music,  they 
appreciate  art,  they  are  educating  their  children,  they  want  a 
clean,  moral,  .and  whc^esome  community  in  which  to  rear  their 
children,  and  enjoy  the  safety  and  comforts  of  home  life. 
They  expect  this  and  as  citizens  they  have  a  right  to  expect  it. 
It  is  coming.  Every  drop  of  the  best  blood  of  the  South 
stands  pledged  to  it.  As  they  prove  themselves  capable  of 
laying  hold  of  and  improving  opportunities  there  is  a  company 
of  white  men  and  women,  daily  growing  larger,  who  are 
demanding  these  opportunities  for  them.  More  than  that, 
they  are  helping  them  to  become  capable  and  to  take  advantage 
of  these  opportunities  for  the  benefit  of  the  whole  community 
and  of  the  whole  nation.  These  are  the  men  and  women  who 
have  social  sympathies  and  social  interests.  They  face  toward 
Christ.  It  is  true  that  we  have  not  yet  gone  far  in  cooperative 
social  work.  The  juvenile  Negro  criminal  and  delinquent  girl 
are  not  sufficiently  provided  for  by  either  private  or  public 
institutions;   nor  is  there  sufficient  provision  for  the  juvenile 


THE   OUTLOOK  119 

offender  of  the  white  race.  But  the  old  way  of  making  con- 
firmed criminals  out  of  this  raw  material  is  to  yield  to  edu- 
cational and  preventive  measures.  It  is  true  also  that  sani- 
tariums, fresh-air  funds,  day  nurseries,  sanitary  prison 
reforms,  settlement  work,  and  public  welfare  enterprises  gen- 
erally have  too  largely  left  the  Negro  out  of  count.  Coopera- 
tive agencies  have  made  hopeful  beginnings,  however,  in 
Louisville,  Ky. ;  Nashville,  Tenn ;  Atlanta,  Ga ;  Richmond, 
Va. ;  Columbia,  S.  C,  and  a  few  other  places.  We  are  begin- 
ning to  wake  up.  We  are  moving  toward  a  better  day.  We 
are  beginning  to  see  that  the  Negro  is  our  asset  or  peril  as 
we  help  him  to  rise  or  let  him  alone;  that  he  is  to  be  an 
intelligent  and  efficient  citizen  or  the  nemesis  of  our  neglect. 
We'll  help  him  or  he'll  hurt  us.  Black  morals  stamp  them- 
selves on  white  life,  low  intellectual  standards  insinuate  them- 
selves into  the  corporate  character  of  the  whole  community, 
and  disease  knows  no  color  line — this  we  are  beginning  to  see. 
Not  even  do  venereal  diseases  know  any  color  line.  They  get 
across.  It  isn't  the  black  man — as  much  as  we've  said  about 
the  leacherous  brute.  It's  the  white  man's  adventure  into  the 
black  man's  territory.  In  Mississippi,  a  week  ago  to-day,  a 
Negro  man  and  a  Negro  woman  were  lynched,  because,  as  was 
reported,  "the  Negro  man  hired  the  Negro  woman  to  make  an 
improper  proposal  to  a  white  woman."  It  was  bad  enough, 
but  I  wonder  how  many  improper  proposals  pass  in  the  other 
direction.  Is  a  black  man's  crime  a  white  man's  privilege? 
We  need  a  single  standard  for  the  races  as  well  as  the  sexes. 
Better  times  are  coming  just  as  we  dare  to  face  reality  and 
be  fair,  just  as  we  see  straight  and  do  right,  just  as  we  become 
conscious  that  every  life  is  sacred  and  that  we  are  trustees  to 
make  it  safe. 

In  this  new  hour  a  new  breath  stirs.  We  are  facing  reality. 
I  seem  to  hear  a  woodthrush's  song,  and  the  whippoorwill's 
dying  away. 

6.       THE  NEGRO  AND  LABOR 

The  Negro  has  been  discriminated  against  in  industry,  but 
the  clouds  are  lifting.  Labor  unions  have  refused  him  ad- 
mittance and  mobbed  him  as  a  scab.     But  times  are  changing. 


120  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

As  he  becomes  skilled  and  efficient  and  feels  the  new  breath 
and  apostolate  of  freedom,  he  can  not  be  industrially  neg- 
lected, discredited,  or  disregarded.  This  I  have  tested  out  in 
every  community  in  the  South.  White  men  say  that  the  edu- 
cated Negro,  the  efficient  Negro,  the  property-owning  Negro, 
the  home-building  Negro  is  an  asset,  a  desirable  citizen;  he 
keeps  the  laws  and  has  the  respect  of  the  people.  Men  who 
build  homes,  live  right,  and  are  industrially  independent  will 
be  respected. 

This  new  industrial  factor,  just  coming  into  view,  is  to  be 
reckoned  with.  It  is  not  to  be  opposed  but  encouraged,  edu- 
cated, and  directed.  If  the  South  is  to  make  the  most  of  its 
industrial  opportunity  and  democracy,  it  must  conserve  its 
working  force,  white  and  black.  Intelligence  and  self-interest 
require  it  and  humanity  requires  it.  Even  here  in  this  com- 
petitive strife  where  life  calls  for  cooperative  friendliness  the 
human  way  makes  its  divine  appeal.  As  Principal  Moton  has 
splendidly  said,  "No  laborer  can  give  skillful,  efficient,  con- 
scientious service  when  he  is  surrounded  day  and  night  by  all 
that  tends  to  lower  his  health,  to  distort  his  mind,  to  weaken 
his  morals,  to  embitter  his  spirit,  to  shake  his  faith  in  his 
fellow-man."  The  human  way  of  helping  him  to  his  best  is 
the  way  out. 

We  must  see  to  it  that  he  has  a  man's  chance,  all  that  he 
asks.  We  brought  him  here.  We  enslaved  him  here.  We 
must  give  him  a  chance  here.  He  is  no  alien.  He  is  here  to 
stay.  Until  merit  shall  rule  in  politics,  in  industry,  in  life,  we 
shall  bear  our  grist  to  autocracy  and  grind  in  her  mills.  This 
is  a  challenge  of  democracy.  The  Negro  race  and  the  white 
race  must  pull  together  or  we  can  not  pull  a  big  enough  load  to 
build  here  a  great  community  as  a  part  of  a  great  nation. 

7.     discrimination  before  the  law  and  mob  violence 

We  must  acknowledge  that  there  has  been  discrimination 
against  the  Negro  in  legislation ;  but  the  law  has  not  been  as 
crooked  as  the  execution  of  the  law.  Even  in  politics  he  has 
been  cheated  out  of  his  vote  more  shamefully  than  prevented 
from  voting  by  crooked  legislation.  We've  been  guilty  of 
crooked  politics.     Everybody  knows  it.     We've  got  to  quit  it. 


THE    OUTLOOK  121 

This  crooked  politics  has  reacted  on  the  integrity  of  the  ballot 
against  the  very  people  who  forgot  to  do  right.  While  justify- 
ing shady  practices  on  the  ground  of  the  necessity  of  securing 
a  white  man's  government,  we  are  bringing  in  a  blacker  regime 
by  our  own  duplicity  than  black  ballots  could  have  ever  deliv- 
ered. We  forget  that  the  moral  law  never  sleeps,  and  never 
forgets.    This  phase  of  our  politics  is  passing. 

But  the  most  outstanding  crime  is  lynching.  There  have 
been  from  1885  to  1916,  thirty-two  years,  about  4,000  lynch- 
ings  in  the  United  States,  three-fourths  of  them  in  the  South. 
In  the  first  sixteen  years  of  this  time  there  were  never  less 
than  a  100  a  year,  and  twice  the  number  rose  above  200,  the 
average  being  150.  In  the  second  sixteen  years  the  number 
reached  100  only  twice,  the  average  being  70,  less  than  half. 
This  looks  hopeful.  'Tis  true,  we  hear  more  about  it  in  recent 
years.  The  tragedies  seem  to  thicken.  The  fact  is  we  are 
simply  waking  up.  Our  consciences  are  quickened.  It  is  the 
hour  before  sunrise. 

Still  the  fight  is  not  over.  There  is  a  respectable  number 
of  people  who  do  not  belong  to  the  underworld,  and  who, 
if  they  do  not  openly  advocate  lynch  law,  excuse  it.  They  will 
not  bring  an  offender  to  justice.  They  are  not  moved  with 
moral  passion  and  indignation  against  it.  If  they  do  not  start 
the  mob,  they  follow  it,  and  enjoy  as  high  sport  this  American 
diversion.  Such  men  are  not  peculiar  to  the  South,  though  the 
South  has  suffered  most  from  their  atrocities.  Nor  is  the 
Negro  the  only  victim,  though  he  has  been  the  chief  sufferer. 

Ip  condemning  mob  violence  the  criminal  is  not  excused 
from  the  villainy  of  his  crime.  But  law  must  be  made 
supreme,  justice  more  than  a  word  on  our  tongues,  and  life 
made  sacred  and  safe  under  all  circumstances  of  excitement 
and  of  emotional  stress  and  storm. 

We  will  never  develop  in  another  race  respect  for  the 
laws  we  make  by  violating  them  ourselves.  We  will  never 
cure  brutality  by  the  brutality  of  mobs  of  brutes.  We  will 
never  teach  self-restraint  under  passion  by  ourselves  breaking 
out  in  uncontrolled  and  explosive  violence.  Every  white  man, 
every  man  who  has  any  respect  for  his  race,  must  heed  the 
challenge  from  this  good  hour  to  stand  four-square  against  all 
forms  of  mob  violence  and  revenge. 


122  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

8.     the  negro  as  soldier  and  patriot 

The  Negro  as  a  soldier  in  the  recent  war  will  be  more 
than  an  episode  in  relation  to  his  future  history.  He  is  by 
nature  gregarious.  He  loves  a  crowd.  He  fits  into  mass 
movements.  He  is  the  synonym  of  loyalty.  He  is  a  typical 
patriot.  He  makes  a  good  soldier.  He  furnished  his  quota  of 
the  American  army.  What  effect  will  ^his  war  experience 
have  on  his  future?  Already  the  atmosphere  is  changing.  In 
some  places  it  is  tense.  I  dare  not  guess  what  breath  will  blow 
upon  us.  But  this  I  know,  the  man  who  gives  all  a  man  can 
give,  for  his  country — his  life — can  not  be  forgotten  by  the 
people;  the  race  that  fits  into  the  world  program  of  democracy 
and  liberty  will  find  a  place  and  an  appreciation  whatever  his 
color  or  previous  condition. 

As  a  Southern  man  whose  forebears  were  Southern  before 
him,  as  one  who  has  always  counted  Lee  and  Jackson  first 
citizens  of  the  nation,  I  dare  to  believe  that  the  South  will  be 
among  the  first  to  do  right,  to  give  the  Negro  a  man's  chance, 
to  find  for  him  his  place  in  the  highest  he  is  capable  of  for 
himself,  for  his  race,  for  the  nation. 


INTERRACIAL  CO-OPERATION  AND  THE  SOUTH'S 
NEW  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS 

professor  MONROE  N.   WORK,  TUSKEGEE  INSTITUTE,   ALABAMA 

The  South  to-day  is  in  the  midst  of  new  economic  condi- 
tions. The  immediate  cause  is  the  recently  waged  world-war. 
The  demands  upon  the  South  because  of  these  new  economic 
conditions  are :  For  greater  productiveness  in  agriculture ;  a 
greater  output  in  industry ;  an  increase  of  the  efficiency  and 
skill  of  the  individual ;  and  a  large  increase  in  the  industrial 
population  to  the  end  that  the  resources  of  the  South  may  be 
fully  developed.  Because  of  the  large  proportion  of  both 
races  in  the  South,  it  is  only  through  the  cooperation  of  whites 
and  Negroes  that  these  demands  can  be  met.  The  problem  of 
interracial  cooperation  in  its  economic  aspects  is,  therefore, 
very  important. 


INTERRACIAL    CO-OPERATION  123 

There  are  four  important  lines  along  which  there  should  be 
interracial  cooperation.  These  are  the  improving  of  educa- 
tional facilities,  the  bettering  of  health  conditions,  the  improve- 
ment of  farming,  and  the  establishment,  under  the  law  and  in 
general  dealings  with  each  other,  of  more  just  relations  be- 
tween whites  and  blacks. 

It  is  well  to  recognize  that  economic  efficiency  depends  to 
a  large  extent  upon  education.  Whether  the  colored  people 
will  receive  their  just  due  of  the  educational  facilities  depends 
upon  the  white  people.  It  is  too  much,  as  the  late  Dr.  Booker 
T.  Washington  often  said,  to  expect  a  colored  child  to  get  as 
much  education  for  two  dollars  as  a  white  child  gets  for  ten 
dollars. 

The  largest  amount  of  interracial  cooperation  is  at  present 
in  the  improvement  of  educational  facilities.  This  has  come 
about  through  the  work  of  the  Anna  T.  Jeanes  Foundation, 
the  Rosenwald  Rural  Schoolhouse  Building  Campaign,  the 
placing  by  the  General  Education  Board  of  state  supervisors 
of  Negro  rural  schools  in  the  several  states  of  the  South,  and 
the  more  general  recognition  by  the  South  of  the  importance 
of  educating  the  Negro.  Through  these  agencies  the  whites 
and  Negroes  have  learned  to  cooperate,  and  where  this 
cooperation  has  taken  place  the  tendency  has  been  to  cause  a 
better  understanding  and  to  promote  more  friendly  relation- 
ships between  the  races.  As  an  example  of  this  cooperation, 
Mr.  Julius  Rosenwald  had  given  up  to  June  30,  1919,  for  the 
promotion  of  rural  schoolhouse  buildings.  $311,995.37.  To 
meet  Mr.  Rosenwald's  contributions,  the  Negroes  in  the  com- 
munities where  these  schoohouses  were  erected,  have  con- 
tributed $443,381.35;  from  the  public  funds  of  states,  $354,- 
032.00 ;  and  from  the  white  people  of  the  communities  where 
the  school  buildings  were  erected,  $88,552.27.  Making  a  total 
of  $1,197,960.99  that  was  thus  contributed  for  schoolhouse 
buildings. 

In  the  matter  of  health  conditions  there  is  already  con- 
siderable interracial  cooperation.  There  should  be  a  great  deal 
more.  Bad  health  conditions  among  colored  people  are  caus- 
ing enormous  financial  losses.  There  are  in  the  South  about 
half  a  million  Negroes  who  are  seriously  sick  all  the  time; 


124  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

that  is,  so  ill  that  some  one  has  to  take  care  of  them.  If  this 
sickness  was  distributed  among  the  entire  Negro  population 
of  the  South,  it  would  mean  that,  on  an  average,  each  man, 
woman,  and  child  would  be  sick  eighteen  days  in  the  year. 
The  average  annual  loss  in  earnings  to  the  Negroes  of  the 
South,  because  of  sickness,  is  more  tlian  fifty  million  dollars. 
They  are  paying  annually  one  hundred  million  dollars  for 
doctor  bills  and  funeral  expenses. 

For  a  long  time,  the  attitude  toward  bad  health  conditions 
among  Negroes  was  "if  Negroes  die,  who  cares."  It  was  not 
realized  that  any  part  of  the  enormous  financial  loss  caused  by 
bad  health  conditions  among  them  fell  upon  the  white  people 
or  upon  the  state.  When,  however,  there  began  to  be  talk  of 
conserving  the  natural  resources  of  the  state,  it  was  pointed 
out  that  the  most  important  part  of  these  resources  are  the 
people,  white  and  black.  They  are  more  important,  more 
valuable  than  the  soil,  the  forests,  the  minerals,  or  the  water- 
ways. It  is  probable  that  the  South  is  losing  each  year,  because 
of  bad  health  conditions  among  its  Negro  population,  more 
than  three  hundred  million  dollars.  It  is  also  probable  that  by 
improving  health  conditions  among  its  Negro  population  that 
one-half  of  this  great  sum  could  be  saved.  To  endeavor  to 
save  this  vast  sum  to  the  South,  and  at  the  same  time  try  to 
make  the  Negro  more  eflficient,  affords  a  great  opportunity 
for  interracial  cooperation. 

Let  us  examine  more  closely  the  matter  of  health  improve- 
ment and  efficiency.  If  the  South  is  to  take  her  place  eco- 
nomically as  the  banner  section  of  the  nation,  the  efficiency 
of  her  Negro  population  will  have  to  be  greatly  increased.  On 
account  of  bad  health  conditions  and  the  lack  of  training,  the 
Negro  population  is  about  one-half  as  efficient-  as  it  is  capable 
of  being.  On  the  other  hand,  because  of  premature  deaths, 
the  number  of  years  that  the  average  Negro  works  is  about 
one-half  of  what  it  should  be.  The  average  life  of  Negroes 
is  now  about  thirty- five  years.  If  the  average  length  of  life 
for  them  were  increased  to  fifty  years  (and  this  can  be  done 
by  sanitary  improvement)  the  length  of  time  the  average 
Negro  could  work  would  be  increased  to  thirty  years ;  that  is, 
the  increase  would  be  fifteen  years. 


INTERRACIAL    CO-OPERATION  125 

Let  us  grasp  the  significance  of  this  as  a  means  of  meeting 
the  new  economic  conditions.  The  South,  through  migration, 
has  lost  thousands  of  her  Negro  population.  By  improving 
the  health  conditions  of  those  who  remain,  the  loss  in  migra- 
tion, can,  to  a  considerable  degree,  be  offset.  There  are,  in 
the  South,  about  five  million  Negroes  who  are  engaged  in 
gainful  occupations;  that  is,  are  helping  to  do  the  South's 
work  and  develop  its  resources.  Now,  if  by  education  and 
health  improvement,  the  efficiency  of  these  Negro  men  and 
women  can  be  doubled,  it  will  be  equal  to  adding  five  million 
additional  workers  to  the  population  of  the  South.  Likewise, 
if  the  period  of  productive  work  of  the  average  Negro  can  be 
doubled,  it  will  be  equal  to  adding  another  five  million  to  the 
population  of  the  South.  The  South,  in  order  to  develop 
her  vast  resources,  will  need  millions  of  additional  workers. 
It  has  been  pointed  out  that  "an  analysis  of  the  population  of 
the  Southern  States  makes  it  certain  that  the  hope  of  the 
South  for  an  improved  labor  supply  is  not  immigration,  but 
the  effective  education  of  her  white  and  colored  youth."  After 
all  the  years  of  tremendous  immigation  to  America,  the  South 
had  in  1910  only  726,171  persons  of  foreign  birth.  The  pro- 
portion of  the  immigration  stream  going  to  the  South  has  long 
been  less  than  5  per  cent  of  the  total  number  of  immigrants. 
The  inevitable  conclusion  is,  therefore,  that  the  two  great 
sources  of  labor  in  the  South  are  the  more  than  20,000,000 
native  white  persons  and  the  9,000,000  Negroes. 

The  improving  of  farming  conditions  likewise  affords  an 
opportunity  for  interracial  cooperation.  The  increase  of  the 
efficiency  of  Negro  farmers  will  be  one  of  the  most  eflfective 
methods  of  rneeting  the  new  economic  conditions.  In  spite  of 
the  migration  to  the  North,  there  are  still  in  the  South  some 
two  million  Negroes  engaged  in  agricultural  pursuits  as  farm 
laborers,  as  croppers,  as  renters,  and  as .  independent  owners. 
This  is  a  tremendous  amount  of  labor  and  in  it  are  tremendous 
possibilities.  Put  it  another  way,  40  per  cent  of  the  tillable 
land  of  the  South  is  in  the  hands  of  Negroes  in  one  form  or 
another.  The  late  Dr.  Booker  T.  Washington  said :  "That,  in 
his  opinion,  this  mass  of  Negro  labor  is  an  undiscovered  gold 


126  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

mine.  How  to  improve  the  efficiency  of  these  two  milhon 
black  laborers,"  he  said,  "is  one  of  the  problems  that  now 
confronts  the  South." 

The  South  is  awakened  to  the  importance  of  increasing, 
through  education,  the  efficiency  of  Negro  farmers.  This  is 
being  done  chiefly  through  agricultural  demonstration  work, 
and  vocational  education,  as  carried  on  under  the  Smith-Lever 
and  the  Smith-Hughes  Act  for  agricultural  and  vocational 
education.  In  spite,  however,  of  the  increased  interest  in  the 
education  of  Negro  farmers,  but  a  small  proportion  of  the 
money  which  is  being  spent  by  the  states  of  the  South  for 
agriculture  and  vocational  education  goes  to  the  Negro.  The 
report  of  the  United  States  Commissioner  of  Education  for 
1916  appears  to  indicate  that  of  $2,806,910,  expended  by  the 
Southern  States  for  these  forms  of  education.  $2,487,358. 
or  87.2,  went  for  the  education  of  white  and  $319,552,  or 
12.8,  for  increasing  the  working  efficiency  of  Negroes. 

There  were  in  the  South,  according  to  the  1910  census, 
354,452,860  acres  of  farming  lands.  Of  this  vast  area,  two 
hundred  million  acres  were  yet  to  be  brought  under  cultivation. 
On  the  land  that  was  being  cultivated,  the  average  yield  per 
acre  was:  For  cotton,  one-half  a  bale;  corn,  17  bushels; 
sweet  potatoes,  88  bushels. 

In  order  to  farm  successfully  the  land  that  is  being  culti- 
vated, and  to  help  bring  the  vast  area  of  unimproved  land 
under  cultivation,  it  will  pay  the  South  to  increase  the 
intelligence  of  her  Negro  farmers.  If  this  is  done  they  will 
become  more  efficient ;  they  will  be  able  to  use  better  methods 
of  farming;  they  will  be  able  to  raise  on  the  land  which  is 
being  cultivated  two  bales  of  cotton  where  one  is  now  being 
grown;  50  bushels  of  corn  where  17  are  now  being  grown; 
and  150  bushels  of  sweet  potatoes  where  88  are  now  being 
raised.  By  increasing  the  intelligence  of  the  Negro  farmers 
they  will  be  able  to  use  improved  farming  machinery  to  a 
much  greater  extent.  As  a  result,  they  will  be  able  to  cultivate 
two  acres  where  they  are  now  only  cultivating  one.  Thus, 
through  increased  efficiency,  the  yield  per  acre  and  the  acreage 
cultivated  would  be  doubled,  and  the  South's  waste  places 
would  be  made  "to  blossom  as  the  rose." 


INTERRACIAL   CO-OPERATION  127 

The  most  difficult  phase  of  interracial  cooperation  is  that 
which  has  to  do  with  the  treatment  of  a  weaker  race  by  a 
stronger.  Unlike  cooperation  for  the  improvement  of  farm- 
ing, of  health  conditions,  and  of  educational  facilities,  which 
can  be  carried  on  in  any  community  by  a  part  of  the  whites 
and  Negroes,  those  relationships  which  relate  to  treatment 
depend  very  largely  upon  the  attitude  of  all  of  the  whites 
toward  all  of  the  Negroes.  This  fact  is  one  of  the  reasons 
which  makes  interracial  cooperation,  as  to  treatment,  so 
difficult. 

Not  only  is  cooperation  as  to  treatment  the  most  difficult 
phase  of  interracial  cooperation,  but  it  is  also  the  most  vital 
and  the  most  important  phase.  It  is  the  matter  of  treatment 
that  is  causing  among  Negroes  the  greatest  dissatisfaction  and 
complaint.  It  is  treatment  that  is,  perhaps,  the  greatest  factor 
in  their  migration  to  the  North.  The  following  statement  has 
been  made  so  often  that  it  has  become  almost  a  truism:  "If  I 
could  get  just  treatment  in  the  South  I  would  be  willing  to 
remain  there  at  a  great  deal  less  wages  than  I  receive  in  the 
North."  This  dissatisfaction  and  complaint  is  of  the  treat- 
ment received  in  the  dealings  of  many  landlords  in  their  settle- 
ments with  their  tenants,  of  the  treatment  that  is  accorded 
Negroes  on  trains,  of  the  suffrage  restrictions,  of  the  justice 
that  is  meted  out  to  Negroes  in  the  courts,  of  the  persecution 
which  they  suffer  at  the  hands  of  officers  of  the  law,  and  of 
the  failure  of  the  law  to  protect  against  mob  violence. 

With  the  coming  of  peace  and  the  return  of  the  demobilized 
Negro  soldiers  to  the  South,  it  appears  that  there  has  been 
an  increase  of  distrust  and  antagonism  between  the  races. 
It  is  perhaps  more  accurate  to  say  that  while  there  is  an 
increase  in  the  number  of  whites  in  the  South  who  are  dis- 
ix)sed  to  cooperate  with  the  Negro,  and  there  is  a  growing 
disposition  to  actively  engage  in  cooperation,  there  is,  on  the 
other  hand,  a  greater  display  of  antagonism  than  ever  before 
by  those  unfriendly  to  the  Negro. 

This  antagonism  is  expressed  in  an  increased  number  of 
lynchings.  The  result  is  that  for  the  time  being,  at  least,  much 
of  the  spirit  and  of  the  disposition  to  cooperate,  which  had 
come  as  a  result  of  the  working  together  of  the  two  races  to 


128  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

help  win  the  war,  appears  to  be  lost.  Among  Negroes  there 
appears  to  be  an  increasing  belief  that  it  will  not  be  possible 
to  get  the  protection  of  life  and  liberty  in  the  South  that  it  is 
possible  to  get  in  the  North.  For  this  reason  there  is  a  con- 
tinuance of  the  migration  to  the  North,  with  a  resulting 
decrease  in  the  South's  labor  supply.  The  general  tendencies 
of  the  times,  however,  and  of  the  growing  spirit  of  democracy 
is  not  reactionary,  but  progressive  toward  a  better  understand- 
ing, a  larger  and  more  effective  codperation  between  the  races. 
This,  however,  will  take  time. 

It  is  very  important  in  connection  with  the  present  efforts 
for  interracial  cooperation  that  the  new  South  have  a  better 
understanding  of  the  new  Negro.  It  has  been  well  said  that 
the  Old  South,  the  old  order  of  whites,  understood  the  ante- 
bellum Negro;  the  New  South,  however,  the  new  order  of 
whites,  because  of  a  lack  of  contact  with  the  new  order  of 
black  men,  has  not  fully  understood  nor  appreciated  them. 
Hence,  there  is  distrust  of  the  new  Negro. 

In  slavery  days  there  was  in  the  South  a  class  of  Negroes 
whose  skill  as  workmen  and  whose  personal  devotion  to  their 
masters'  interests  excited  general  praise.  They  were  the 
house  servants,  chief  of  whom  was  "Mammy,"  the  foreman  in 
the  fields,  and  the  mechanics,  such  as  blacksmiths,  carpenters, 
coopers,  etc.  It  was  into  the  hands  of  this  class  of  the  slaves 
that  the  masters,  when  the  Civil  War  came  on,  committed 
the  care  of  their  plantations  and  their  women  and  children. 
So  faithful  were  these  blacks  that  during  the  entire  period  of 
the  war  there  was  not  a  single  instance  of  a  betrayal  of  the 
trust  committed  to  their  hands. 

After  emancipation  what  became  of  this  house  servant- 
mechanic  class,  the  most  intelligent  element  of  the  slave  popu- 
lation? To  a  large  extent  its  members  established  homes 
for  themselves,  acquired  property,  and  became  the  leaders  in 
getting  the  race  started  on  the  road  to  that  remarkable  progress 
which,  after  fifty  years,  is  the  wonder  and  admiration  of  the 
world.  Thus  it  came  to  pass  that  the  best  element  in  the 
Negro  race  got  more  or  less  out  of  touch  with  the  best  element 
in  the  white  race.  The  descendants  of  this  house  servant- 
mechanic  class  are  to-day  the  preachers,  teachers,   doctors, 


THE    SOUTH    TO    PREVENT    LYNCHING  129 

mechanics,  farm  owners,  and  business  men,  who,  as  leaders  of 
their  race,  Hve  in  their  own  world  apart  from  the  whites. 
They  are  the  new  order  of  black  men,  whom,  through  the 
medium  of  the  Southern  Sociological  Congress,  and  in  other 
ways,  the  New  South  is  coming  to  know,  and,  to  some  extent, 
understand.  They  are  a  part  of  the  South.  They  are  dis- 
posed to  be  as  devoted  to  her  interests  as  their  fathers  were 
to  the  interests  of  their  masters.  It  is  through  this  new  order 
of  black  men  that  interracial  cooperation  can  be  made  effective. 


THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH  TO  PREVENT 
LYNCHING* 

PROFESSOR  EDWIN   MIMS,  PH.  D.,  VANDERBILT  UNIVERSITY 

But  one  fundamental  thing  can  be  said  withs  regard  to 
lynching:  it  is  unjustifiable  under  all  circumstances  and  con- 
ditions, and  is  wrong  in  the  sight  of  man  and  of  God.  If  you 
modify  or  amend  this  statement  in  any  degree,  you  give  away 
the  whole  principle.  There  may  be  differences  of  opinion  in 
regard  to  the  definition  of  mercy  and  justice  and  democracy, 
but  this  is  a  question  that  goes  to  the  very  root  of  our  civiliza- 
tion. Lynching  is  a  blot  upon  our  national  escutcheon,  and 
is  a  menace  to  the  greatness  of  our  nation  and  to  the  progress 
of  the  South. 

And  yet,  what  have  we  done  or  what  are  we  going  to  do 
to  make  these  words  a  living  reality?  I  suppose  any  one  in 
the  audience  is  ready  to  give  his  intellectual  assent  to  what  I 
have  said.  These  words  have  nmg  out  from  all  the  news- 
papers. They  have  rung  out  from  the  lips  of  our  great  leaders. 
We  have  resolved  and  resolved,  and  yet  lynching  still  con- 
tinues. Any  morning  we  may  expect  to  wake  up  and  see  in 
the  papers  an  account  of  another  lynching.  While  we  sit  in 
this  holy  place  this  evening  there  may  be  a  lynching  or  riot 
in  any  community  from  which  we  come.  Before  twenty- four 
hours  have  passed,  we  may  be  reading  of  another  horrible 
scene  that  will  make  us  wonder  if  we  live  in  a  land  of  civiliza- 
tion and  Christianity. 

•Printed  from  stenographic  notes. 


130  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

According  to  a  very  wise  Frenchman,  "Words  are  often 
the  art  of  conceaHng  thought."  If  they  are  not  a  means  of 
conceahng  thought,  they  are  often  a  substitute  for  action. 
Words,  I  sometimes  think,  are  the  most  futile  of  all  things. 
But  I  wish  that  I  might  so  speak  to  you  this  evening  upon 
this  subject  that  there  would  be  words  upon  the  lips  of  all  of 
you  that  would  take  hold  of  you  and  grip  you  until  every 
individual  here  would  go  from  this  house  resolved  that,  by  the 
help  of  God  and  in  the  light  of  patriotic  demands  of  the  times, 
he  will  go  to  the  limit  in  putting  a  stop  to  this  awful  menace 
to  our  civilization. 

I  might  argue  the  question  from  many  standpoints,  but 
it  is  scarcely  necessary  to  argue  to-night.  I  might  show  you 
that  it  is  an  economic  peril  to  our  Southland,  that  it  is  in- 
expedient, that  it  is  unwise,  a  political  mistake.  But  I  would 
have  you  feel  to-night  most  of  all  that  it  is  a  national  sin  and 
a  community  sin  for  which  God  Almighty  will  hold  us 
responsible. 

Yet,  while  I  have  said  that,  I  do  not  propose  to  argue  this 
question.  There  are  certain  things  one  hears  upon  the  streets 
that  tend  to  deaden  somewhat  our  strong  intellectual  con- 
victions upon  this  subject.  There  are  those  in  this  audience 
to-night  who  might  be  swept  off  their  feet  for  a  moment  by 
the  sophistries  that  one  hears  ofttimes.  One  of  those  is  that 
for  a  certain  crime  lynching  is  justifiable.  This  has  been 
repeated  to  us  time  and  time  again,  though  only  about  one- 
fourth  of  the  lynchings  of  which  we  read  are  for  this  one 
crime.  Yet  we  continue  whenever  we  think  upon  this  subject, 
or  rather  when  we  feel  about  it — for  most  people  do  not 
think  through  it — we  continue  to  use  this  old,  old  argument. 
We  know  if  we  have  read  the  papers  that  lynchings  have 
occurred  in  this  country  for  every  conceivable  reason  from  the 
most  outrageous  crime  to  the  slightest  offense.  Negro  men 
and  Negro  women  have  been  lynched,  and  white  men  and 
white  women  have  been  lynched.  The  trouble  is  that,  when- 
ever one  person  tries  to  set  up  a  crime  that  justifies  lynching, 
somebody  else  wants  to  do  the  same  thing  on  account  of 
another  crime.     A  mob  in  action  knows  no  reason,  has  no 


THE    SOUTH    TO    PREVENT    LYNCHING  131 

discretion  and  no  fear  of  law  when  the  people  are  under  the 
influence  of  strong  passion  and  bent  upon  accomplishing  an 
awful  mission. 

Another  thing  we  frequently  hear,  and  often  read,  is  that 
the  North  has  gotten  into  the  habit  of  lynching  as  well  as  the 
South.  Many  a  Southern  man  has  lost  his  once-keen  sensi- 
bilities upon  this  question  by  taking  this  fact  as  a  defense  of 
the  same  attitude  in  the  South.  We  have  let  our  eyes  become 
partially  blinded  to  our  own  situation  and  our  own  problems, 
I  read- in  the  paper  on  Sunday,  as  you  all  did,  that  the  editor 
of  the  New  York  Nation  had  made  the  statement  in  Phila- 
delphia recently  that  a  Negro  Soldier  had  been  lynched  in  the 
state  of  Tennessee.  A  Tennesseean  challenged  the  statement 
and  wrote  for  facts.  Of  course,  the  answer  was  that  the 
lynching  had  occurred  in  another  state.  Whether  it  occurred 
in  any  other  state  or  not,  I  do  not  know.  But  the  trouble  is 
that  other  newspapers  that  had  seen  the  article  in  the  Nation 
commented  upon  it,  and  drew  the  attention  away  from  what 
should  have  been  said  about  the  evils  of  lynching  to  the  fact 
that  we  had  been  misrepresented  in  the  North.  Many  a 
Southern  man  will  allow  this  misinformation  or  prejudice  of 
the  Northern  man  in  making  such  a  statement  to  divert  his 
attention  from  facing  his  solemn  duty  of  meeting  the  problem 
in  his  own  section  and  his  own  community.  If  a  lynching 
occurred  in  every  state  of  the  Union  that  would  not  make 
lynching  in  the  state  of  Tennessee  any  less  damnable.  We 
must  banish  from  our  minds  so  much  attention  to  what  other 
people  think  and  what  other  people  say,  and  learn  to  face  our 
duty  squarely  as  honest  patriots. 

Another  great  mistake  we  are  apt  to  make  is  that  we  listen 
to  some  ridiculous  utterance  of  a  radical  Negro  leader,  or 
something  that  we  read,  and  are  at  once  put  upon  the  defensive. 
But  I  submit  that  we  must  not  allow  any  such  utterances  in 
regard  to,  or  by,  another  race  come  between  us  and  our 
solemn  duty.  What  many  of  the  Southern  people  have  been 
doing  when  the  Negro  problem  was  brought  up  is  to  picture 
the  very  worst  type  of  Negro  that  they  can  think  of  and  argue 
from  that  standpoint.  But  we  must  think  about  the  better 
class  of  Negroes.     We  should  see  them  as  a  great  body  of 


132  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

people  who  are  becoming  better  educated,  who  are  highly 
respectable  members  of  society,  many  of  whom  are  property 
owners  and  very  worthy  citizens  in  every  way.  We  ought 
to  think  about  them.  I  saw  a  large  audience  in  Nashville 
swept  by  a  great  wave  of  applause  as  Mr.  Irvin  Cobb  paid  a 
tribute  to  the  Negro  soldiers  until  they  shook  the  walls  of  the 
auditorium  in  which  they  were  seated.  A  prominent 
Southerner,  when  he  saw  the  Negro  troops  in  Camp  Jackson, 
said,  "By  the  help  of  God,  I  will  never  let  injustice  be  done 
to  the  men  who  are  fighting  for  me  and  for  my  country." 
This  is  the  side  of  it  we  have  got  to  see.  I  saw  another  great 
audience  held  in  breathless  suspense  by  the  Fisk  Jubilee  singers. 
You  have  heard  them  here  to-night.  We  must  see  this  old 
problem  and  solve  it  in  the  light  of  the  present  day,  looking 
at  it  from  the  angle  of  the  best  people  of  the-  other  race. 

Another  thing  we  hear  in  justification  of  lynching  is  that 
the  law  has  its  delays  and  it  is  hard  for  those  that  have  been 
wronged  to  get  justice  in  the  courts.  This  argument  has 
been  much  used.  A  prominent  lawyer  said  in  Nashville  last 
year,  "You  can't  do  anything  in  that  line  so  long  as  the  courts 
fail  to  bring  justice  to  so  many  people."  My  answer  to  this  is 
that  any  Negro  who  has  committed  a  heinous  crime  would  be 
brought  to  swift  justice  in  the  courts.  We  know  that  what- 
ever may  be  said  about  justice  to  many  people  in  the  courts — 
people  of  all  colors — they  have  always  held  the  Negro  to 
the  highest  standards  of  civilization.  So  in  spite  of  all  of  these 
sophistries  that  we  are  fond  of  passing  around  and  that  cause 
us  to  fail  to  see  this  problem  in  its  true  light,  the  fact  that 
lynching  is  unjustifiable  under  any  and  all  circumstances,  and 
that  it  is  wrong  in  the  sight  of  man  and  God  still  stands. 

If  we  feel  rightly  upon  this  subject,  and  think  rightly,  we 
see  that  one  reason  lynching  has  not  been  put  down  is  that  we 
who  believe  that  it  is  wrong  have  not  been  aggressive  enough 
— we  have  not  been  powerful  enough  and  positive  enough  in 
making  our  views  known.  It  is  this  lack  of  action  on  our 
part  that  is  going  to  mean  the  defeat  of  the  city,  of  the  state, 
of  the  college,  of  the  church,  and  of  everything  that  holds  up 
our  civilization.  It  does  not  mean  the  victory  of  the  degen- 
erate and  the  hobo,  but  the  surrender  of  the  ideals  of  the 


THE    SOUTH    TO    PREVENT    LYNCHING  133 

scholars  and  of  the  professional  men  and  the  thinking  people 
of  all  classes.  But  if  we  once  get  properly  aroused  on  this 
question,  we  will  push  aside  all  these  sophistries  and  rise  Hke 
men  to  do  the  task  that  is  ahead  of  us. 

"What  can  we  do?"  I  believe  that  first  of  all  we  have  got 
to  become  passionately  convinced  that  these  things  are  wrong 
and  must  be  stopped  by  us  as  individual  men.  We  must  get  it 
upon  our  conscience — get  to  the  point  where  we  can  not  sleep 
because  these  things  occur,  and  then  we  have  got  to  go  to 
work  solidly  and  organize  public  sentiment  and  crystallize 
our  efforts  so  that  lawlessness  may  be  met  by  organized  law, 
and  injustice  by  aggressive  justice,  so  that  we  shall  see  to  it 
that  the  children  of  light  are  more  powerful  than  the  children 
of  darkness,  to  meet  face  to  face  the  difficulties,  and  stand 
forth  in  the  shining  armor  of  righteousness  as  we  battle  with 
the  empire  of  darkness. 

May  I  tell  you  briefly  of  something  that  was  done  in 
Nashville,  Tenn.,  a  year  ago?  It  indicates  a  beginning.  Just 
after  the  last  of  three  lynchings  had  taken  place  I  wrote  an 
article  of  protest  in  the  Nashville  Banner,  for  I  could  not  be 
silent  any  longer.  I  said,  "What  good  does  talking  do?"  I 
invited  seven  men  to  my  study  the  following  night  and  said, 
"We  want  to  get  twenty-five  men  in  Nashville  to  meet  next 
Sunday  and  see  what  we  can  do  about  this  lawlessness."  The 
tragedy  at  Estill  Springs  had  just  taken  place  and  following 
that  an  awful  crime  had  been  committed  at  Memphis.  We  got 
together  those  twenty-five  men,  and  the  next  Sunday  one 
hundred — there  were  only  two  men  who  did  not  respond.  The 
next  morning  we  had  upon  the  front  pages  of  the  Nashville 
papers  a  statement  worded  in  no  uncertain  terms  and  signed 
by  representatives  of  every  business  organization  and  every 
profession  in  the  city  of  Nashville.  We  organized  a  Law  and 
Order  League.  Cut  of  that  grew  the  State  Law  and  Order 
League.  Although  it  was  not  an  easy  thing  to  work  up  a  state 
meeting  on  that  subject,  we  had  representative  leaders  to  meet 
at  the  capital,  and  trie  results  were  beyond  all  expectations. 

Out  of  that  state  meeting  came  great  public  interest  in  the 
movement.  I  think  I  may  claim  that  as  a  part  of  the  result  of 
our  activities  Governor  Roberts,  of  Tennessee,  during  his  cam- 


134  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

paign  incorporated  a  paragraph  into  his  speeches  on  the  sub- 
ject, and  spoke  of  it  in  his  inaugural  address.  A  bill  was 
passed  by  the  last  Legislature  giving  the  Governor  of 
Tennessee  police  power  by  which  he  can  immediately  put  down 
any  mob  that  may  form.  I  am  glad  to  say  that  he  has  the 
courage  and  determination  to  do  it.  If  lynching  in  this  state 
can  not  be  stopped  with  such  laws  in  force  it  is  because  we 
have  not  given  our  governor  enough  power.  Organization 
means  everything,  but  we  are  now  at  the  point  where  we  fail 
to  do  what  we  might,  because  we  do  not  have  a  man  who  can 
devote  all  of  his  time  to  the  work  of  organizing  Law  and 
Order  Leagues  over  the  state  of  Tennessee.  We  lack  money. 
What  we  need  in  the  South  is  organizations  that  have  money 
so  they  will  be  able  to  put  the  best  men  whose  services  are  to 
be  commanded  in  a  position  to  work  out  this  problem.  We 
need  to  have  great  meetings  in  the  South  to  raise  a  protest 
against  this  terrible  evil. 

One  thing  we  can  do,  which  is  perhaps  even  more  funda- 
mentally necessary  than  this.  We  must  educate  the  people  in 
this  matter.  It  is  easy  to  say  to  the  people  in  the  North,  and 
elsewhere,  that  the  people  of  the  South  do  not  believe  in  lynch- 
ing, but  there  are  many  expressions  of  public  opinion  to  the 
contrary.  This  audience  may  not  have  to  be  educated,  but  a 
great  many  people  must  yet  be  educated  in  the  fundamentals 
of  order  and  justice,  and  in  the  necessity  of  abiding  by  the 
laws  of  the  country.  We  must  begin  to  impress  the  reverence 
for  law  more  forcibly  than  ever  before  upon  the  children  of 
this  coming  generation.  It  ought  to  be  taught  in  every  school 
that  lynching  is  unjustifiable  under  all  circumstances.  We 
must  appeal  to  the  churches,  too.  At  our  meeting  in  Nashville 
we  advocated  vigorous  work  along  this  line  in  every  college 
and  in  every  business  organization  in  the  state. 

To  stop  mob  violence  is  largely  a  matter  of  educating 
public  sentiment,  and  it  is  going  to  be  a  long,  long  process 
before  we  shall  completely  eradicate  this  evil  from  our  midst. 
But  if  we  do  not  do  it  somebody  else  is  going  to  do  it.  If 
the  community  can  not  stop  it  then  the  state  has  got  to  stop 
it.  If  the  state  can  not  stop  it,  then  the  nation  has  got  to 
stop  it,  and  we  had  as  well  face  the  situation.    It  is  no  small 


THE    SOUTH    TO    PREVENT    LYNCHING  135 

matter  when  the  editor  of  the  Atlanta  Constitution  and  the 
editor  of  the  Houston  Daily  Post,  as  well  as  others,  have  al- 
ready given  up  hope  in  the  state,  and  have  said  very  frankly 
that  the  federal  authorities  will  have  to  take  hold  of  the 
situation.  There  are  lawyers  who  speak  on  both  sides  of  the 
question,  but — hear  me ! — the  thing  has  got  to  be  stopped. 

Did  you  read  that  great  message  from  President  Wilson 
last  summer  ?  Perhaps  you  saw  it  in  the  papers.  Perhaps  you 
paid  little  attention  to  it.  It  was  one  of  his  greatest  utterances. 
In  it  he  said  that  every  resource  of  the  country,  every  particle 
of  our  strength  must  be  used  to  help  crush  the  Germans.  But 
what  can  we  say  about  crushing  a  foreign  enemy  when  such 
terrible  things  are  occurring  all  over  our  own  country? 
President  Wilson  plead  with  the  people  as  a  father  pleads 
with  his  children  to  remove  this  national  disgrace  from  our 
country.  For,  he  said,  every  lie  that  the  Germans  may  tell 
about  us  will  have  more  weight  while  this  terrible  truth  stands 
out  against  us  as  a  fact.  Do  we  ever  think  how  this  great  man 
must  feel  at  the  Peace  Conference  and  refers  to  the  atrocious 
crimes  of  the  people  of  other  countries,  when  he  has  the  con- 
sciousness that  back  here  in  his  own  country  just  as  great  law- 
lessness is  going  on  and  members  of  our  own  race  are  com- 
mitting such  great  injustices  against  each  other.  Europeans 
can  not  understand  this  thing.  I  have  been  in  Paris  when  the 
only  news  item  I  saw  in  the  papers  there  about  America  was 
an  account  of  one  of  our  horrible  lynchings.  European  papers 
feature  a  lynching  whenever  it  occurs,  because  they  have  no 
conception  of  such  a  thing  and  can  not  understand  the  reason 
for  such  a  crime.  They  know,  of  course,  that  such  means 
were  taken  to  make  quick  work  of  justice  in  primitive  days, 
but  what  are  you  going  to  say  when  you  read  of  the  unspeak- 
able mutilation  of  human  bodies  in  this  enlightened  day? 
What  can  you  say?  I  have  heard  our  soldiers  speak  of  their 
shame  when  the  allies  asked  them  abroad  about  these  things. 
I  know  they  could  only  hang  their  heads  in  shame  when  they 
know  that  it  is  advertised  to  the  world  that  we  Americans  can 
so  far  forget  the  principles  that  we  are  supposed  to  stand  for 
as  to  allow  these  things  to  happen  in  this  twentieth  century  in 
the  land  that  we  love.     Do  you  realize  the  great  place  that 


136  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

our  country  has  come  to  occupy  in  the  hfe  of  the  world?  Do 
you  realize  how  the  nations  that  are  looking  to  us  for  leader- 
ship must  think  of  us  when  they  know  that  these  things  occur 
in  our  midst  ?  I  tell  you  it  is  a  blot  on  our  national  escutcheon, 
it  is  a  black  spot  upon  our  flag,  and  causes  our  chivalry  to 
appear  but  tinsel  in  the  eyes  of  the  world. 

Now,  no  matter  what  your  motives  may  have  been  in 
coming  to  this  place  this  evening,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  may 
I  not  hope  that  here  in  this  city  the  white  men  and  women  will 
solemnly  dedicate  themselves  by  word,  by  action,  by  organi- 
zation to  see  to  it  that  these  things  shall  not  occur  in  our 
America — shall  not  be  allowed  to  besmirch  our  American 
civilization? 


VI.    INDUSTRIAL  PROGRESS 


The  American's  Creed 

The  Material  Progress  of  the  Laborer 

Industrial  Democracy 

The  Search  for  Social  Justice 


THE  AMERICAN'S  CREED 

"I  BELIEVE  in  the  United  States  of  America  as  a 
Government  of  the  people,  by  the  people,  for  the 
people,  whose  just  powers  are  derived  from  the  con- 
sent of  the  governed;  a  democracy  in  a  republic;  a 
sovereign  nation  of  many  sovereign  states;  a  perfect 
union,  one  and  inseparable,  established  upon  those 
principles  of  freedom,  equality,  justice,  and  humanity 
for  which  American  patriots  sacrificed  their  lives  and 
fortunes. 

"I,  therefore,  believe  it  is  my  duty  to  my  country 
to  love  it,  to  support  its  constitution,  to  obey  its  laws, 
to  respect  its  flag,  and  to  defend  it  against  all  enemies." 


THE  MATERIAL  PROGRESS  OF  THE  LABORER 

THEODORE  W.  GLOCKER,  PH.  D.,  PROFESSOR  OF  SOCIOLOGY, 
UNIVERSITY  OF  TENNESSEE 

In  this  period  of  social  unrest  it  is  important  to  take  care- 
ful measure  of  the  material  progress  of  the  wage  earner,  to 
analyzse  the  causes  of  his  present  economic  condition,  and  to 
discuss  the  possible  methods  of  improving  that  condition. 

As  regards  the  material  progress  of  the  wage  earner  there 
has  undoubtedly  been  marked  improvement.  The  laborer  has 
shared  with  other  groups  in  society  some  of  the  comforts 
furnished  by  machinery  and  invention.  It  is  interesting  to 
contrast  his  condition  in  1919,  at  the  close  of  the  world- war, 
with  that  at  the  close  of  the  American  Revolution,  as  described 
by  J.  B.  McMaster  in  his  "History  of  the  People  of  the  United 
States."  In  1784  the  unskilled  laborer  received  a  pittance  of 
fifty  cents  a  day.  "In  the  low  dingy  rooms  which  he  called 
home  were  wanting  many  of  the  articles  of  adornment  and 
use  now  found  in  the  dwellings  of  the  poorest  of  his  class. 
Sand  sprinkled  on  the  floor  did  duty  as  a  carpet.  There  was 
no  glass  on  his  table,  there  was  no  china  in  his  cupboard,  there 
were  no  prints  on  his  wall.  What  a  stove  was  he  did  not 
know,  coal  he  had  never  seen,  matches  he  had  never  heard  of. 
He  rarely  tasted  fresh  meat  as  often  as  once  a  week  and  paid 
for  it  at  a  much  higher  price  than  his  posterity.  Everything, 
indeed,  which  ranked  as  a  staple  of  life  was  very  costly. 
Many  commodities  now  to  be  seen  on  the  table  of  the  poor 
were  either  quite  unknown  or  beyond  the  reach  of  his  scanty 
means.  If  the  food  of  an  artisan  would  now  be  thought 
coarse,  his  clothes  would  be  thought  abominable."  A  pair  of 
yellow  buckskin  or  leather  breeches — smeared  with  grease  to 
keep  them  soft  and  flexible — a  checked  shirt,  a  red  flannel 
jacket,  a  rusty  felt  hat  cocked  at  the  corners,  and  a  leather 
apron  comprised  his  scanty  wardrobe.  If  he  became  sick  the 
sheriff  probably  seized  him  when  he  recovered  and  imprisoned 
him  for  the  debts  that  had  accumulated  during  his  illness. 

Statistics  over  a  long  period  of  time  show  that  wages  have 
tended  to  increase.    But  are  they  increasing  as  fast  as  the  cost 


140  '^DISTINGUISHED   SERVICE"    CITIZENSHIP 

of  living?  Wide  fluctuations  in  prices  have  produced  corre- 
sponding fluctuations  in  the  purchasing  power  of  wages. 
Thus  for  more  than  a  decade  after  the  Civil  War  prices  fell 
much  faster  than  wages,  causing  a  considerable  improvement 
in  the  economic  condition  of  the  working  classes.  On  the 
other  hand,  as  prices  rose  from  1905  to  1912  wages  did  not 
correspondingly  increase,  with  the  result  that  the  purchasing 
power  of  a  week's  wages  was  less  in  1912  than  it  had  been 
for  twenty  to  thirty  years.  The  data  in  the  Aldrich  Report 
of  1891,  on  "Wholesale  Prices,  Wages,  and  Transportation," 
and  subsequent  bulletins  of  the  United  States  Department  of 
Labor,  show,  however,  that  real  wages — that  is,  wages 
measured  not  in  money,  but  in  the  commodities  which  the 
laborers  buy — increased  about  fifty  per  cent  between  1870 
and  1903.  Bowley  in  his  ''National  Progress  in  Wealth  and 
Trade"  estimates  that  in  Great  Britain  for  about  the  same 
period,  namely  1870  to  1900,  real  wages  increased  sixty-seven 
per  cent;  and  for  a  longer  period,  from  1840  to  1900,  they 
rose  one  hundred  per  cent. 

But  for  wages  to  increase  is  not  sufficient.  The  worker 
may  justly  demand  that  his  wages  increase  at  least  as  fast  as 
the  resources  of  the  nation.  A  comparison  of  the  increase  of 
wages  and  of  per  capita  wealth  in  Great  Britain  and  the 
United  States  shows  that  this  has  not  been  the  case.  Between 
1875  and  1905  the  per  capita  wealth  in  Great  Britan  increased 
fifty  per  cent.  For  about  the  same  period,  namely  1878  to 
1907,  W.  H.  Beverage,  in  his  book  entitled  "Unemployment," 
shows  that  in  five  leading  British  industries  wages  increased 
only  eighteen  per  cent.  The  figures  are  practically  the  same 
for  the  United  States.  Thus,  in  this  country,  between  1870 
and  1900,  per  capita  wealth  increased  forty-eight  per  cent, 
and  the  average  wages  only  eighteen  per  cent.  In  other  words, 
per  capita  wealth  is  increasing  about  three  times  as  fast  as 
wages  in  both  countries. 

Moreover,  there  are  still  very  many  workers  who  are  living 
in  poverty,  that  is,  who  do  not  receive  sufficient  wages  for 
physical  and  economic  efficiency.  The  familiar  studies  of 
social  conditions  in  London  by  Charles  Booth  showed  that 
nearly   one-third   of   the   whole    population   were   living   in 


PROGRESS    OF    THE    LABORER  141 

poverty,  and  B.  S.  Rowntree,  in  his  study  of  York,  England, 
found  that  twenty-eight  per  cent  of  the  population  below  the 
servant-keeping  class  had  insufficient  income  for  physical 
efficiency.  Robert  Hunter  has  estimated  that  one-fourth  of 
the  people  in  the  cities  of  the  United  States  and  one-tenth  of 
the  population  of  the  entire  country  are  in  poverty.  These 
earlier  estimates  have  been  confirmed  by  numerous  recent 
studies.  A  necessary  living  wage  for  women  has  been  esti- 
mated to  be,  on  the  average,  eight  dollars  a  week.  Yet  from 
sixty  to  seventy-five  per  cent  of  working  women  in  New 
York,  Massachusetts,  and  other  states  are  receiving  less  than 
this  amount.  A  necessary  living  wage  for  a  family  of  father, 
mother,  and  three  children  has  been  estimated  to  average  at 
least  fifteen  dollars  a  week  for  the  United  States.  Yet  the 
same  studies  show  that  from  fifty  to  sixty  per  cent  of  all  male 
wage  earners  receive  less  than  this  amount. 

Before  the  present  great  rise  in  prices  I  collected,  with  the 
help  of  my  students  at  the  University  of  Tennesse,  data  con- 
cerning the  families  of  wage  earners  in  Knoxville.  Accepting 
$4.70  a  week  as  a  living  wage  for  a  man :  $3.70  for  a  woman ; 
$2.80  for  a  child  between  eleven  and  fourteen  years ;  and 
$1.90  for  children  under  ten  years,  or  $15  for  a  family  of 
five,  the  information  collected  from  1,415  of  these  families 
showed  that  sixty-six  per  cent  of  the  whites  and  fifty-eight 
per  cent  of  the  Negroes  did  not  receive  sufficient  wages  for 
decent  living. 

Nor  do  these  figures  tell  the  whole  story,  as  they  do  not 
take  into  consideration  the  loss  of  wages  through  unemploy- 
ment. They  represent  the  maximum  possible  wage,  rather 
than  the  real  wages  received.  The  inadequate  figures  for  the 
United  States  reveal  a  large  amount  of  chronic  unemploy- 
ment. The  data  collected  by  the  New  York  Bureau  of  Labor 
shows  that  for  the  ten  years  from  1901  to  1911,  eighteen 
per  cent  of  the  workers  were  on  the  average  unemployed  some 
time  during  each  month.  The  more  adequate  English  figures 
compiled  from  the  records  of  the  trade  unions  show  that  for 
the  skilled  trades  the  per  centage  of  chronic  unemployment  has 
at  no  time  since  1870  fallen  below  two  per  cent,  and  in  times 
of  business  depression  has  risen  to  ten  and  eleven  per  cent. 


142  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

Moreover,  while  unemployment  in  England  has  never  sub- 
sequently reached  the  high  point  of  1887,  yet  the  figures  indi- 
cate that  the  general  tendency  of  chronic  unemployment  is  to 
increase. 

Is  the  total  income  of  society  sufficient  to  guarantee  to 
each  worker  a  living  wage?  This  is  an  important  question 
which  must  be  answered  by  the  reformer  who  seeks  to  improve 
conditions.  A  rough  test  is  to  divide  the  estimate  of  the  total 
annual  income  of  a  nation  by  its  total  population  and  thus 
derive  its  annual  income  per  capita.  Accepting  Dr.  Hellffe- 
rich's  estimate  of  the  annual  income  of  Germany  in  1911  as 
ten  billion  dollars,  the  per  capita  income  of  Germany  for 
that  year  was  $150.  The  per  capita  income  of  France,  using 
Dr.  Hellfferich's  estimate  for  1911,  was  about  the  same  as 
for  Germany,  namely,  $152.  It  was  higher  for  England, 
$262  in  1912.  W.  I.  King,  in  his  "Wealth  and  Income  of 
the  People  of  the  United  States,"  estimated,  a  few  years  ago, 
that  the  per  capita  income  of  the  United  States  was  $332,  or 
about  $1,500  for  a  family  of  five  persons".  The  above  esti- 
mates show  what  would  be  available  if  the  total  annual  income 
were  divided  equally.  But  not  even  the  socialists  want  equal 
division.  To  reward  initiative  and  to  stimulate  production 
the  energetic  and  the  able  must  receive  higher  rewards  than 
others.  The  problem  of  securing  sufficient  income  to  eliminate 
poverty,  and  yet  provide  for  these  higher  incomes,  is,  there- 
fore, a  very  serious  one  in  Germany  and  France.  But  the 
resources  of  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain  are  probably 
large  enough  to  guarantee  to  all  a  living  wage. 

There  are  many  causes  of  low  wages,  but  a  fundamental 
cause  both  of  low  wages  and  unemployment  is  the  maladjust- 
ment of  the  supply  of  labor  to  the  demand  for  it.  There  is  no 
general  surplus  of  labor  because  there  is  no  limit  to  the  wants 
of  man.  We  can  use  all  the  workers  we  have  and  more.  But 
they  are  badly  distributed  between  different  employments,  and 
the  demand  for  them  in  each  employment  varies  at  different 
times. 

Thus,  unskilled  laborers  do  not  receive  low  wages  because 
they  perform  a  less  important  service  than  other  groups  of 
workers,  but  because  the  supply  is  so  large  relative  to  the 


PROGRESS    OF    THE    LABORER  143 

demand.  Inertia  and  lack  of  opportunity  for  special  training 
keep  an  undue  proportion  of  workers  in  this  lowest  group. 
Their  numbers  are  further  increased  by  the  inefficient  workers 
who  have  failed  to  make  good  in  the  higher  grades  of  labor, 
and  by  the  men,  displaced  by  machinery  and  other  labor-saving 
devices,  who  are  too  old  or  too  unadaptable  to  learn  new 
trades.  Their  chances  to  improve  their  condition  are  destroyed 
by  the  influx  of  immigrants  ready  to  come  to  America,  of 
children  ready  to  leave  school,  of  women  ready  to  emerge 
from  the  home  whenever  the  opportunities  for  employment  at 
unskilled  or  semi-skilled  labor  are  exceptionally  good. 

If  unskilled  laborers  should  suddenly  become  scarce,  their 
wages  might  rise  until  equal  to  or  greater  than  those  of  the 
skilled.  For  example,  between  1801  and  1810  the  frontier 
and  the  merchant  marine  drew  many  workers  away  from 
industrial  work.  But  the  skilled  artisans  did  not  abandon  the 
trades  for  which  they  had  sacrificed  years  of  preparatory 
training.  It  was  the  unskilled  laborer  who  disappeared,  with 
the  result  that  his  wages  rose  until  they  were  only  slightly 
less  than  those  of  the  skilled. 

In  many  of  the  skilled  trades  there  is  likewise  a  surplus. 
This  surplus  may  result  from  a  change  in  the  demand  for  the 
article  produced,  from  a  displacement  of  hand  workers  by 
machines,  and  from  other  causes.  The  man  who  has  devoted 
years  to  acquiring  proficiency  at  a  trade  is  naturally  loath  to 
abandon  it.  He  does  not  want  to  sacrifice  additional  months 
or  years  to  training.  He  may  be  ignorant  of  new  oppor- 
tunities. As  has  already  been  pointed  out  he  may — if  un- 
adaptable, lacking  in  initiative,  or  past  middle  life — sink  to 
the  ranks  of  the  unskilled.  He  clings,  therefore,  desperately 
to  his  trade  as  long  as  he  is  able  to  secure  enough  employment 
to  earn  a  bare  living.  After  a  time,  moreover,  one  gets  ac- 
customed to  intermittent  work,  develops  a  fondness  for  these 
frequent  compulsory  vacations,  and  becomes  incapable  of 
steady  toil. 

Even  though  the  demand  for  workers  is  not  decreasing, 
the  existence  of  a  surplus  is  perpetuated  in  a  trade  by  the 
shifting  of  men  from  one  job  to  another.  If  no  one  left  his 
job  until  he  had  another  position  awaiting  him,  then  the  sur- 


144  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

plus  of  laborers  would  largely  disappear.  Unable  to  get  any 
employment  at  their  trade  they  would  be  drawn  off  to  do  other 
work  that  society  needs.  But  very  few  men  retain  permanently 
the  same  positions.  Restless,  dissatisfied  workers  are  con- 
stantly quitting  with  no  other  jobs  in  prospect.  The  incom- 
petents and  the  misfits  are  always  being  summarily  discharged 
by  employers.  This  shifting  from  job  to  job  with  periods  oi 
unemployment  between  is,  of  course,  greatly  increased  when 
there  is  much  variation  in  the  demand  for  labor  from  week  to 
week,  season  to  season,  period  of  good  times  to  period  of  bad 
times.  The  short  time  that  boys  tend  to  hold  their  jobs  was 
brought  out  strikingly  in  a  recent  survey  of  boys  employed 
in  the  commercial  district  of  Knoxville,  Tenn.,  made  by  the 
writer  with  the  aid  of  university  students.  Forty-two  per  cent 
of  working  boys  between  the  ages  of  ten  and  twenty  had  held 
their  jobs  three  months  or  less.  Only  eight  per  cent  had  been 
employed  in  their  present  positions  over  one  year.  This 
changing  of  jobs,  while  undoubtedly  less  prevalent  among 
adults,  nevertheless  exists  to  a  great  extent  among  them.  The 
final  result  is  that  even  in  the  busiest  times  there  are  in  many 
industries  more  workers  than  jobs,  and  the  competition  of  this 
surplus  of  labor  ready  to  work  for  low  wages  forces  down 
the  scale  of  the  others. 

Better  adjustment  of  the  supply  of  labor  to  meet  the 
demand  might  be  secured  through  trade  unions  or  through 
state  action.  The  trade  unions  have  not,  however,  been  very 
successful  in  regulating  the  supply  of  labor.  One  of  their 
methods  has  been  to  limit  the  number  of  apprentices.  But 
with  the  division  of  labor  and  the  introduction  of  machinery, 
apprenticeship  is  breaking  down,  and  even  skilled  artisans  are 
secured  by  promotion  from  the  less  skilled  workers  in  the  same 
establishment. 

A  second  method  of  the  trade  union  is  to  fix  the  daily 
stint  of  work  and  thus  make  more  work  to  go  around.  Unions 
rarely  enact  definite  rules  of  such  a  character,  but  there  is 
sometimes  an  unwritten  agreement  as  to  what  shall  constitute 
a  fair  day's  work.  Such  attempts  to  make  more  work  to  go 
around  fail,  however,  to  relieve  unemployment  and  to  rid  the 
trade  of  surplus  workers.     In  the  first  place,  a  man  is  apt  to 


PROGRESS    OF    THE    LABORER  145 

limit  his  output  in  prosperous  times  when  such  restriction  is 
little  needed,  and,  for  fear  of  losing  his  job,  to  work  with 
maximum  efficiency  in  bad  times  when  such  restriction  might 
be  helpful.  In  the  second  place,  while  limiting  a  man's  output 
may  divide  the  work  among  a  larger  number  of  men,  a  surplus 
of  intermittently  employed  workers  is  still  attracted  to  or 
retained  in  the  trade  so  long  as  there  is  shifting  from  one  job 
to  another. 

Moreover,  limitation  of  output  is  demoralizing  to  the 
worker,  because  it  destroys  the  ideal  of  good  workmanship, 
one  of  the  big  factors  in  the  development  of  character.  It  is 
injurious  to  industrial  welfare,  because  it  increases  the  cost  of 
production  in  industries  where  it  prevails,  because  it  prevents 
the  release  of  the  surplus  of  workers  to  develop  the  new  in- 
dustries which  society  requires.  Ruskin,  in  his  "Munera 
Pulveris,"  told  us  over  half  a  century  ago  that  the  workman 
serves  his  country  with  his  spade  as  a  soldier  with  his  sword. 
This  has  been  the  great  lesson  which  the  world-war  of  1914- 
1918  has  taught  us,  and  it  should  be  the  central  plank  of  our 
industrial  platform  during  the  period  of  reconstruction  and 
peace. 

Effective  control  of  the  labor  market  can  probably  be 
secured  only  through  action  on  the  part  of  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment. We  are  discussing,  to-day,  the  desirability  of  unify- 
ing the  railroads  to  eliminate  the  wastes  of  competition.  We 
are  proposing  to  allow  manufacturers  to  pool  their  output  so 
as  to  adjust  the  supply  of  commodities  to  the  demands  of 
domestic  and  foreign  trade.  Why  should  we  not  also  pool  the 
labor  market  ? 

The  machinery  for  such  regulation  of  the  labor  market 
exists  in  the  Federal  Employment  Bureaus.  The  first  essential 
is  practically  universal  use  of  the  bureau  by  employers  and 
employees.  At  present,  it  is  used  primarily  to  secure  jobs 
only  for  certain  limited  groups  of  unskilled  laborers.  Uni- 
versal use  of  the  employment  bureaus  should  be  secured  as 
far  as  possible  by  propaganda,  by  voluntary  cooperation  on 
the  part  of  both  employers  and  workmen.  But  in  industries 
where  there  is  much  unemployment  due  to  fluctuations  in  the 
demand  for  labor  by  employers,  the  use  of  the  bureaus  might 
possibly  be  made  compulsory. 


146  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

The  functions  of  such  employment  bureaus  should  be  much 
more  than  trying  to  find  jobs  for  men.  Connected  with  them 
should  be  a  staff  of  investigators  to  collect  data  and  to  formu- 
late policies  for  the  better  distribution  of  labor.  Their  power 
over  the  labor  market  will  enable  them  to  decrease  the  surplus 
in  some  industries  and  to  direct  additional  labor  into  newly 
developing  ones.  It  will  enable  them  to  discourage  reasonless 
quitting  of  work  on  the  part  of  employees  and  arbitrary  dis- 
charge of  workers  by  employers.  Such  bureaus  may  influence 
employers  to  distribute  work  more  evenly  over  the  year,  and 
not  to  vary  dull  seasons  and  much  unemployment  with  seasons 
of  rush  and  overtime  work. 

Such  federal  regulation  of  the  labor  market  will  not 
destroy  the  trade  unions.  Rather  it  will  make  collective  bar- 
gaining by  the  unions  more  successful.  It  will  not  remove  the 
necessity  of  other  government  regulation  of  labor  conditions, 
but  may  make  such  regulation  more  effective.  Thus,  the 
establishment  of  a  minimum  living  wage  by  law  may  still  be 
needed.  But  the  bureau  will  help  to  solve  the  problem  of  the 
incompetent  thrown  out  of  a  job  because  unable  to  earn  the 
legal  minimum.  Industrial  education  is  expected  to  raise  the 
wages  of  the  unskilled  by  drawing  off  the  surplus  of  workers 
in  this  group  into  other  occupations.  But  unless  the  number 
receiving  the  various  kinds  of  industrial  education  be  regu- 
lated by  some  agency  having  knowledge  of  the  labor  market, 
this  gain  in  the  wages  of  the  unskilled  may  be  wholly  or  partly 
offset  by  the  overcrowding  of  certain  skilled  trades,  and 
hence  the  decline  in  the  wages  of  these  groups  of  workers. 
Compulsory  or  voluntary  labor  colonies  for  those  who  will 
not  work  or  those  who  can  not  work  may  restore  physical 
efficiency  and  habits  of  industry  to  those  who  have  lost  them. 
But  unless  referred  to  some  adequate  employment  agency, 
these  men  will  probably  return  to  the  odd  jobs  or  casual  work 
which  originally  demoralized  them,  and  then  nothing  will  be 
accomplished.  There  are  many  who  favor  out-of-work  in- 
surance, but  unemployment  insurance  is  impracticable  without 
some  agency,  like  a  federal  employment  bureau,  able  to  deter- 
mine whether  a  man  is  out  of  a  job  because  he  can  not  get 
work  or  because  he  wants  to  loaf.     Everywhere  we  find  the 


INDUSTRIAL    DEMOCRACY  147 

need  of  alleviating  the  harshness  of  unrestrained  labor  com- 
petition. Everywhere  we  find  the  need  of  some  powerful 
directive  agency  working  in  accordance  with  a  fixed  policy 
based  on  adequate  knowledge  of  the  labor  market. 


INDUSTRIAL  DEMOCRACY 

JEROME  DOWD,  PH.  D.,  PROFESSOR  OF  SOCIOLOGY, 
UNIVERSITY  OF  OKLAHOMA 

Now  that  the  world-war  for  democracy  is  consummated, 
and  autocracy  forever  banished — at  least  from  Europe — the 
most  amazing  fact  which  emerges  for  our  reflection  is  that 
this  achievement  had  to  be  brought  about  at  a  cost  of  life  and 
property  beyond  that  of  any  other  achievement  in  the  history 
of  mankind.  Indeed,  it  is  inexpressibly  amazing  that  the 
object  sought  for  and  gained  at  such  a  price  could  not  have 
been  reached  through  the  exercise  of  human  reason,  through 
the  application  to  the  situation  of  those  fundamental  principles 
which  have  been  observed  to  be  characteristic  of  the  progress 
of  civilization.  If  there  is  one  fact  of  social  evolution  stand- 
ing out  more  clearly  than  another  it  is  that  the  trend  of 
progress  in  the  Western  World  has  been  away  from  autocracy 
and  paternalism,  and  towards  freedom  and  democracy.  This 
trend  has  been  conspicuous  in  industry,  in  the  family,  in 
religion,  and  in  government.  The  world-war  had  to  be  fought 
out  simply  because  some  of  the  nations  of  the  earth  were  blind 
to  this  universal  trend.  It  will  always  stand  out  as  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  discordances  of  history  that  a  people  as 
learned  as  the  German  should  have  remained  totally  blind  to 
the  most  obvious  facts  of  human  history,  and  should  have 
perpetuated  in  their  social  organization  those  paternal  aspects 
of  industry — the  family,  religion,  and  government — which 
have  been  against  the  whole  trend  of  civilization.  How  much 
better  it  would  have  been  for  the  world,  and  especially  for 
Emperor  William  and  his  military  aristocracy,  if  they  had 
perceived  the  trend  of  civilization,  and  had  sought  to  g^ide  it 
towards  its  destination?    But  such  seems  to  be  the  aberration 


148  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

of  a  privileged  class  everywhere  that,  owl-like,  the  more  light 
they  have  the  darker  their  vision,  and  they  everywhere  en- 
cumber the  path  of  progress,  and  have  to  be  ejected  by 
violence. 

Let  us  hope  that  the  last  great  battle  has  been  fought  for 
political  freedom,  that  the  world  is  now  safe  for  all  demo- 
cratic nations,  and  that  the  few  remaining  monarchies  will 
soon  undergo  a  peaceful  evolution  into  self-governing  states. 

However,  before  the  smoke  of  battle  of  the  world-war  has 
quite  cleared  away,  we  see  the  horizon  in  every  direction 
ablaze  with  another  revolution  of  far  greater  extent  and 
importance  than  the  one  we  are  rejoicing  to  have  brought  to 
an  end.  The  new  revolution  now  flaming  up  in  every  countr}^ 
is  merely  a  continuation  and  logical  sequence  of  the  one  just 
ended.  This  is  a  revolution  for  democracy  in  industry,  and 
it  will  go  on,  like  the  political  evolution  of  the  past,  in  spite 
of  all  opposition,  until  it  is  everywhere  an  accomplished  fact. 

The  great  problem  for  the  world  now  is,  What  shall  be  the 
attitude  of  the  capitalists  and  of  all  enlightened  citizens  to- 
wards this  new  revolution?  Will  they  have  the  vision  to 
perceive  the  inevitable  trend  of  industrial  evolution,  and  seek 
to  guide  it  to  its  destination,  or  will  they,  like  the  German 
aristocracy  in  the  political  revolution,  remain  blind,  and  set 
themselves  as  encumbrances  in  the  path  of  progress?  Their 
attitude  towards  this  revolution  will  determine  whether  it 
shall  move  on  peacefully  or  become  a  red  flame  as  in  Russia. 
When  this  revolution  has  run  its  triumphant  course  will  the 
historian  look  back  with  amazement  at  the  same  blindness  and 
imbecility  of  the  capitalist  class  that  characterized  the  Ger- 
mans in  their  attitude  towards  the  political  revolution? 

In  the  industrial  world  we  see  labor  and  capital  divided 
into  hostile  camps,  wasting  their  strength  and  resources  in 
warfare,  and  inflicting  terrible  suffering  upon  the  noncom- 
batant  population.  Will  these  contending  forces  ever  sign  an 
armistice  and  form  a  league  to  enforce  future  peace,  or  will 
the  war  go  on  until  the  social  structure  collapses  and  crushes 
both  of  them?  I  believe  that  it  is  entirely  feasible  to  bring 
about  a  permanent  peace  between  labor  and  capital  through 
the  application  of  democratic  principles  to  industry.     And,  in 


THE   SEARCH    FOR    SOCIAL   JUSTICE  149 

the  interest  of  that  peace,  I  will  venture  to  indicate  the  funda- 
mental wrong  in  the  present  relationship  of  labor  and  capital, 
and  the  kind  of  reconstruction  needed  to  adjust  industry  to  a 
democratic  basis. 

The  laborer  under  present  conditions  has  no  permanent 
connection  with  any  industry,  he  has  no  share  in  the  manage- 
ment, and  no  share  in  the  profits  of  a  business  in  which  he 
may  spend  the  greater  part  of  his  life.  Above  all,  he  has  no 
initiative,  no  feeling  of  responsibility,  and  no  opportunity  for 
self-assertion.  He  lacks  self-respect  and  feels  that  he  is  less 
than  a  man.  The  problem  of  reconstruction  is  simply  to  give 
to  the  laborer  the  liberty  of  self-direction.  As  every  man 
should  have  a  vote  in  the  political  group  to  which  he  belongs, 
so  every  laborer  should  have  a  voice  in  the  conduct  of  the 
industry  in  which  he  works.  As  autocracy  and  paternalism 
have  been  banished  from  the  political  world,  so  should  they  be 
banished  from  the  industrial  world.  All  incorporated  in- 
dustries should  constitute  a  real  or  approximate  partnership. 

Industrial  democracy  as  here  outlined  has  no  kinship  with 
Bolshevism,  which  aims  at  the  destruction  of  all  capitalists. 
It  has  no  kinship  with  state  socialism,  which  aims  to  set  up  a 
form  of  paternalism  worse  than  that  ever  exercised  by 
capitalists.  It  has  kinship  only  with  political  democracy, 
which  ensures  to  every  individual  that  freedom,  initiative,  and 
self-determination  to  which  all  progress  in  the  past  has  been 
due,  and  without  which  there  can  be  no  progress  in  the  future. 


THE  SEARCH  FOR  SOCIAL  JUSTICE 

ROBERT  B.  ELEAZER,  NASHVILLE,  TENN. 

The  prevailing  emphasis  on  social  service,  the  adoption 
of  social  creeds  by  various  denominations  and  by  the  Federal 
Council  of  Churches,  the  writing  of  books  on  the  relation  of 
Christianity  to  social  problems,  the  multiplication  of  agencies 
for  the  relief  of  human  needs,  and  the  increasing  demand  for 
legislation  to  the  same  end — all  manifest  a  growing  conviction 
that  it  is  the  mission  of  Christianity  to  transform  not  only  the 
individual,  but  through  the  individual  to  transform  society  as 
well.    It  is  not  enough  that  a  man  shall  be  brought  into  right 


150  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

relationship  with  God ;  he  must  be  brought  into  right  relation- 
ship with  his  fellow-men  also.  This  social  content  is  peculiar 
to  the  Christian  religion.  Some  one  has  said  that  man  and 
God  are  sufficient  for  the  perfect  expression  of  all  other 
religions,  but  that  full-rounded  Christianity  demands  the  ref- 
lations of  man  and  God  and  the  other  man. 

Just  as  nothing  that  affected  human  welfare  was  a  matter 
of  indifference  to  Christ,  so  it  can  not  be  to  Christianity  and 
to  Christ-like  men.  When  the  Christian  fully  recognizes  that 
fact,  he  becomes  profoundly  concerned  not  only  for  the  salva- 
tion of  men  from  death  in  the  world  to  come,  but  also  from 
the  living  death  of  injustice,  of  oppression,  of  ignorance  and 
hunger  and  cold  and  despair,  from  which  so  many  suffer  in 
the  world  that  now  is.  Any  interest  short  of  that  in  his 
fellow-men  is  a  travesty  on  the  Christianity  of  Christ. 

The  Christian's  first  effort  to  relieve  conditions  is  quite 
naturally  in  the  direction  of  charity,  social  service,  welfare 
work,  and  the  like — an  effort  to  save  one  here  and  there  from 
the  general  wreckage,  and  to  ameliorate  in  some  degree  the 
unhappy  state  of  others.  United  charities  are  organized, 
social  settlements  established,  free  clinics  opened,  nurse 
deaconesses  employed,  night  schools  and  clubs  conducted,  all 
on  the  basis  of  philanthropy.  All  this  is  fine,  as  far  as  it  goes, 
and  vitally  necessary.  Not  one  whit  of  such  activities  should 
be  abated  so  long  as  there  is  need. 

But  the  social  worker  soon  finds  that  he  is  treating 
symptoms,  not  the  disease  itself.  He  finds  that  men  can  not 
live  decently  on  starvation  wages;  they  can  not  keep  well  in 
unsanitary  tenements;  they  can  not  be  expected  to  educate 
their  children  when  every  penny  of  the  parents'  possible  earn- 
ings is  needed  to  keep  the  wolf  from  the  door;  they  can  not 
improve  their  minds  without  leisure  and  physical  strength; 
they  can  make  little  or  no  provision  for  illness  and  old  age. 
Something  better  and  more  just  than  charity  is  needed. 

So  the  awakened  Christian  citizen  demands  minimum 
wage  legislation,  limitation  of  hours,  housing  reform,  regula- 
tion of  working  conditions,  anti-child-labor  laws,  compulsory 
education,  old-age  insurance,  and  the  like.  All  this  is  good. 
We  desperately  need  a  great  deal  more  of  it. 


THE   SEARCH    FOR    SOCIAL   JUSTICE  151 

However,  it  becomes  increasingly  evident  that  we  have 
not  yet  got  to  the  root  of  the  trouble.  Our  whole  economic 
order  is  built  on  the  two  fundamental  principles  of  com- 
petition and  exploitation.  Both  these  principles,  time  honored 
though  they  be,  are  distinctly  anti-social  and  unChristian. 
Was  it  not  the  purpose  of  Jesus  to  raise  men  to  the  level  of 
brotherhood  and  cooperation?  What  chance  is  there  for  the 
realization  of  that  ideal  under  a  system  in  which  each  is 
engaged  in  a  competitive  struggle  for  existence? 

For  the  vast  mass  of  people  the  rule  of  competition  must 
necessarily  be  each  for  himself  and  each,  whether  he  will  or 
not,  against  the  rest.  Beneath  the  surface  of  the  most  pros- 
perous and  peaceable  times  run  the  conflicting  currents  of 
human  interest,  not  infrequently  in  times  of  stress  breaking 
out  into  open  warfare.  Even  combinations  of  capital  and 
labor  are  but  means  employed  by  limited  groups  to  carry  on 
the  competitive  struggle  more  effectively.  Business  can  never 
be  thoroughly  Christian  so  long  as  competition  and  conflict  of 
interest,  rather  than  cooperation  and  mutual  helpfulness,  He 
at  its  base. 

Exploitation,  or  profits,  is  essentially  of  the  same  nature, 
but  is  even  less  defensible.  It  means  not  the  even  balance  of 
justice,  of  value  for  value,  but  the  payment  to  labor  of  less 
than  it  earns,  and  the  selling  of  commodities  for  more  than 
they  are  worth.  No  concern  long  employs  men  unless  they 
earn  more  than  they  receive,  else  there  would  be  no  profit  to 
the  employer.  A  shoe  manufacturer  produces  shoes  not 
primarily  because  people  need  them,  but  only  because  people 
need  them  so  badly  that  they  are  willing  to  pay  more  than 
they  cost.  Eliminate  profits,  and  every  factory  will  shut  down 
promptly,  and  mankind  will  go  barefoot  forever  unless  some 
other  way  be  devised.  The  merchant  distributes  goods  for 
the  same  sole  purpose — that  he  may  get  for  them  more  than 
they  cost.  The  measure  of  this  excess,  this  unearned  value, 
determines  the  success  of  his  business. 

Give  to  others  as  little  as  possible;  get  from  others  as 
much — this  is  the  motto  of  business  all  along  the  line.     No 


152  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

room  here  for  Jesus's  ideals  of  service  and  self -forget  fulness. 
The  business  world  can  never  be  Christian  so  long  as  it  re- 
mains a  world  in  which  each  is  taught,  if  not  compelled,  to 
seek  a  position  of  vantage  from  which  he  may  exploit  his 
fellows,  and  thrive  on  the  unearned  appropriation  of  their 
labor  or  their  wealth. 

Is  there  a  better  way?  Is  it  possible  for  society  to  be 
organized  on  a  more  Christian  basis?  There  is  a  large  and 
growing  company  of  Christian  students  of  the  economic 
order  who  confidently  think  so,  and  that  the  world  is  rapidly 
tending  in  that  direction.  The  prophetic  Rauschenbusch  long 
stood  out  as  a  conspicuous  apostle  of  a  new  and  Christian 
order  of  cooperation.  The  social  creed  adopted  by  the  Fed- 
eral Council  and  affirmed  by  many  denominations  points 
clearly  in  that  direction.  That  adopted  in  1916  by  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  goes  yet  farther,  declaring  for 
"industrial  democracy,"  for  the  "most  equitable  division  of 
the  product  of  industry  that  can  ultimately  be  devised,"  and 
for  the  "fullest  possible  cooperative  control  and  ownership 
of  industry  and  of  the  natural  resources  upon  which  industry 
depends." 

Now  comes  the  most  striking  ponouncement  of  all — ^the 
social  program  adopted  last  fall  by  the  General  Conference  of 
Canadian  Methodism.  Studying  the  war's  deeper  meanings 
to  society,  and  looking  forward  to. the  new  world  order  of 
which  we  have  heard  so  much,  this  great  religious  body  said : 

"The  triumph  of  democracy,  the  demand  of  the  educated 
workers  for  human  conditions  of  life,  the  deep  condemnation 
this  war  has  passed  on  the  competitive  struggle,  the  revelation 
of  the  superior  efficiency  of  national  organization  and  cooper- 
ation combine  with  the  unfulfilled,  though  often  forgotten, 
but  undying  ethics  of  Jesus  to  demand  nothing  less  than  a 
transference  of  the  whole  economic  life  from  a  basis  of  com- 
petition and  profits  to  one  of  cooperation  and  service. 

"The  present  economic  system  stands  revealed  as  one  of 
the  roots  of  the  war.     The  insane  pride  of  Germany,  her 


THE    SEARCH    FOR    SOCIAL   JUSTICE  153 

passion  for  world  domination,  found  an  occasion  in  the  de- 
mand of  colonies  as  markets  and  sources  of  raw  material — 
the  imperative  need  of  competing  groups  of  industries  carried 
on  for  profits. 

"The  war  has  made  more  clearly  manifest  the  moral  perils 
inherent  in  the  system  of  production  for  profits.  Condemna- 
tion of  special  individuals  seems  often  unjust  and  always  futile. 
The  system  rather  than  the  individual  calls  for  change. 
.  .  .  The  last  century  democratized  politics ;  the  twentieth 
century  has  found  that  political  democracy  means  little  with- 
out economic  democracy." 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  Canadian  Methodists  are  right 
in  condemning  the  chief  foundations  of  the  present  social 
order — competition  and  profits — as  distinctly  anti-social  and 
unchristian  and  at  the  bottom  of  a  large  part  of  the  ills  that 
afflict  society  to-day.  All  reforms  of  the  social  order  which 
leave  these  inethical  foundations  intact  will  prove  futile  in 
large  degree.  When  the  enlightened  religious  leaders  of  our 
land  recognize  that  fact  and  boldly  demand  the  substitution 
of  an  order  that  is  brotherly  and  Christian — an  order  of 
cooperation  and  service — they  may  expect  from  the  vast  hosts 
of  depressed  and  exploited  humanity  such  gratitude  and 
loyalty  as  no  religious  leader  ever  received,  save  Christ  him- 
self. Indeed,  such  a  position  is  imperatively  demanded  in 
these  days  when  there  are  few  advanced  thinkers  who  do  not 
recognize  that  such  a  reform  must  be  accomplished  if  society 
expects  to  progress  very  much  further.  It  is  the  logical  next 
step  in  social  evolution. 

If  given  a  fair  chance  this  reform  will  inevitably  come 
about  by  orderly  and  well-considered  steps.  Revolution  is  to 
be  feared  only  as  a  result  of  hopeless  apathy  or  indifference 
on  the  part  of  those  who  by  every  right  should  lead  in  the 
crusade  for  social  justice,  or  as  a  result  of  the  unreasoning 
opposition  of  blind  conservatism  and  sordid  self-interest.  The 
irresistible  forces  of  social  evolution  may  be  so  long  repressed 
that  they  break  through  at  last  with  explosive  violence,  as 
was  the  case  in  Russia;  but  it  need  not  be  so  in  enlightened 
and  free  America.     Only  let  the  religious  leadership  of  our 


154  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

country  take  into  its  hands  this  great  fight  for  elemental 
justice  and  human  rights,  and  it  will  be  won  speedily,  blood- 
lessly,  and  to  the  glory  of  the  nation. 

By  every  right  the  leadership  of  this  movement  belongs 
to  the  church.  Born  of  the  principles  of  Jesus,  the  first  great 
democrat,  rooted  in  the  Fatherhood  of  God  and  the  brother- 
hood of  man,  it  is  primarily  a  great  religious  movement.  The 
church  robs  itself  when  it  gives  it  over  into  hands  less  sacred 
and  altruistic  than  its  own.  And  the  time  to  act  is  now,  if  the 
haunting  terror  of  Bolshevism  is  to  be  banished  from  the 
world.  For  if  one  may  read  with  any  certainty  the  signs  of 
the  times,  either  brotherhood  or  Bolshevism  lie  just  ahead. 
And  it  rests  with  the  church  to  determine  which  it  shall  be. 


VII.     THE  CHURCH  CONSERVING  LIFE 


The  Program  of  Jesus 

The  Coming  Chm-ch  and  Its  Social  Program 

What  the  Church  Can  Do  to  Conserve  Himian  Life 


THE  PROGRAM  OF  JESUS 

7ESUS  WENT  ABOUT- 
TEACHING     .     . 

.     .     .     PREACHING    .     .     . 

.     .     .     HEALING    ..." 

—Matt.  9:35. 


THE  COMING  CHURCH  AND  ITS  SOCIAL  PROGRAM 

REV.   CHARLES  T.  ALEXANDER,  D.  D. 

We  Speak  of  the  church  that  is  to  incorporate  in  its  life 
the  ideals  of  social  service  that  are  now  in  process  of  forma- 
tion. We  have  only  a  local  congregation  in  view,  one  that  has 
discovered  itself  in  the  light  of  its  larger  obligations  and  possi- 
bilities as  an  organ  in  the  common  community  life. 

The  last  century,  ecclesiastically  speaking,  was  preemi- 
nently doctrinal,  controversial,  belligerent;  and,  in  new  sec- 
tions of  country,  where  there  were  rival  efforts  to  occupy  the 
field,  it  was  intensely  sectarian.  Many  of  the  churches  were 
so  "other-worldly"  as  to  be  unearthly.  The  message  and  the 
life  was  extremely  individualistic;  and  there  was  but  little 
positive,  aggressive  purpose  toward  temporal  betterment  of 
the  community  life  except  in  indirect  and  secondary  ways. 
There  was  no  distinct  social  message.  The  old  message 
developed  the  individual  conscience,  and  did  give  a  powerful 
conviction  with  reference  to  individual  responsibilities  and 
needs.  And  all  this  was  and  is  a  very  necessary  foundation  for 
the  community  message  and  the  community  life,  if  we  would 
keep  spiritual  Christianity  in  its  proper  balance.  The  old 
message  was  aggressively  evangelistic  in  preparation  for  death 
and  the  next  world :  not  so  much  concerned  about  the  welfare 
of  this  world.  In  fact  this  world  was  like  a  burning  house, 
and  the  Christian's  main  business  was  to  get  people  out  of  it. 

The  present  century  finds  a  remarkable  change  of  view  re- 
garding Christian  duties  toward  this  present  world.  The 
present  message  is  more  constructive  and  cooperative.  There 
is  at  present  an  imperative  conviction  with  regard  to  church 
duties  to  the  community  life  as  a  whole,  as  well  as  an  abiding 
conviction  with  regard  to  the  great  fundamental  doctrines  of 
the  Christian  system  and  the  Christian  faith.  The  church  is 
finding  its  calling  to  an  institutional  as  well  as  to  a  testimonial 
life.  Truth  is  always  twofold  in  its  mission,  though  we  may 
have  seen  but  one  side.  Its  message  is  first  of  all  testimonial; 
and  then,  as  a  vital  fact  in  the  lives  of  those  who  yield  to  it, 
it  becomes  institutional.    How  else  could  Truth  become  rooted 


158  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

in  the  earth  and  be  made  a  living  power  amidst  a  people  welded 
together  into  a  common  fellowship  with  common  purposes  and 
common  obligations? 

some  essential  factors  in  the  coming  church 

1.  A  re-statement  of  doctrines  in  terms  of  modern 
thought  and  modern  life.  People  must  be  addressed  in  the 
realm  where  they  are  living.  The  time  has  come  when  the 
whole  system  of  Christian  doctrines  that  are  to  vitalize  faith 
in  the  common  life  of  a  church  and  community  shall  be  ex- 
pressed in  terms  that  are  intelligible  to  the  present-day  thinking 
of  the  masses.  The  dawning  of  the  day  of  democracy  in 
religion  as  well  as  in  politics  demands  such  re-statement,  not 
primarily  for  the  men  of  the  ministry  but  for  the  masses.  And 
we  may  venture  to  say  that  this  re-statement  will  be  made  in 
terms  of  personal  relationship ;  that  is,  personal  relationship  to 
Christ  and  personal  relationships  to  each  other  and  to  the 
world.  In  other  words,  the  church  must  express  itself 
sociologically  as  well  as  theologically,  and  these  two  channels 
of  expression  shall  flow  into  the  one  stream  of  faith  and 
obedience  to  the  will  of  God  in  all  things  temporal  and 
spiritual, 

2.  The  bridge  between  the  Clergy  and  the  Laity  shall  be 
made  broad  enough  for  the  procession  of  the  ever-growing 
democracy  of  the  age  to  pass  over  as  a  common  fellowship. 
The  man  who  would  lead  the  masses  must  get  in  line  and 
become  one  of  them.  The  larger  enlistment  of  the  ministry 
in  the  common  fellowship  and  its  social  movements  is  becom- 
ing more  and  more  a  prime  necessity;  and  the  minister  who 
will  not  heed  and  obey  the  call  will  soon  be  left  to  ponder  in 
the  silence  of  his  own  self-imposed  emptiness  and  desolation. 
He  will  indeed  become  but  a  voice  "crying  in  the  wilderness." 

3.  The  sociological  call  of  the  age  must  be  heard  and 
obeyed  by  the  ruling  pozvers  of  the  various  denominations. 
The  movement  must  become  crystallized  into  definite  con- 
victions and  into  definite  lines  of  denominational  endeavor. 
Then  its  call  can  come  to  all  the  local  forces,  the  local  congre- 
gations, with  general  denominational  sanction  and  command. 


THE    COMING    CHURCH  159 

It  will  thus  become  more  of  a  distinct  department  in  each  local 
church  program,  and  its  needs  as  a  department  can  be  provided 
for.  Here  is  the  next  forward  step  to  he  taken  by  this  Con- 
gress, the  step  of  such  enlistment  of  the  various  religious  bodies 
in  ways  that  shall  make  the  work  a  definite  religious  obligation 
along  zvith  Missions,  Benevolence,  and  Education.  All  this 
will  mean  a  more  comprehensive  local  program.  It  will  cer- 
tainly mean  a  definite  social  service  for  the  community  life  as 
a  whole. 

DEPARTMENTS  OF  SERVICE  IN  THE  COMING  CHURCH 

The  fully  enlisted  church  of  the  future  will  have  a  definite 
program  that  will  cover  not  less  than  five  lines  of  special 
endeavor.  These  lines  shall  include:  (1)  Evangelism,  (2) 
Missions,  (3)  Education,  (4)  Community  Welfare,  (5) 
Human  Betterment  at  Large.  The  coming  church  will  thus 
stand,  not  for  less,  but  for  more  than  it  has  in  the  past.  We 
are  already  familiar  with  the  present  established  departments 
of  church  service.  A  special  word,  however,  should  be  spoken 
regarding  the  last  two  mentioned. 

Community  Welfare.  Such  service  is  sure  to  become  a 
distinct  department  of  regular  church  work.  In  this  depart- 
ment the  otherwise  unenlisted  members  can  become  awakened 
and  enlisted  for  a  form  of  service  that  comes  right  to  our 
doors.  It  is  here  that  the  church  can  coordinate  all  local 
forces  for  community  welfare:  The  medical  organizations, 
the  civic  leagues,  the  commercial  clubs,  the  women's  clubs,  the 
literary  societies,  and  every  form  of  worthy  endeavor  in  the 
community,  and  turn  all  into  one  mighty  cooperative  channel 
for  the  general  uplift  of  the  community  life  as  a  whole. 

Human  Betterment.  There  is  a  work  of  enlistment  and 
cooperative  activity  for  the  country  at  large  that  ought  to  find 
its  place  in  the  highest  thinking  and  the  largest  patriotic  service 
of  the  churches.  The  problems  here  are  many.  The  temper- 
ance cause,  the  problem  of  Sabbath  desecration,  the  growing 
divorce  evil,  child  welfare,  and  a  multitude  of  others  that 
could  be  mentioned.    Surely  the  churches  should  bring  to  bear 


160  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

all  their  powers  upon  such  matters,  and  help  erect  standards 
for  all  the  country  that  are  in  harmony  with  the  ideals  and 
teaching  of  Christ. 

A  SUGGESTED  LOCAL  SOCIOLOGICAL  PROGRAM 

A  department  of  social  service  might  include  such 
program  as  follows :  Committees  of  enlisted  men  and  women 
might  be  appointed  and  their  work  cover  such  items  of 
common  social  interest  as  will  meet  the  general  needs  of  the 
whole  community. 

1.  Sanitation  and  Health.  Surely  here  is  a  most  worthy 
and  a  most  sadly  neglected  service.  Under  skillful  patriotic 
medical  leadership  such  committee  ought  to  render  great 
service  to  all  the  community. 

2.  Child  Welfare  and  Home  Cooperation.  The  fact  that 
thirty  babies  die  in  this  country  every  hour  is  sufficient  evidence 
that  some  mothers  needed  help  from  others  who  are  able  to 
render  the  help.  Neglected  children  need  attention,  multitudes 
of  homes  can  be  helped  by  tactful,  helpful  workers  who  know 
what  they  are  doing. 

3.  Law  Enforcement  and  Moral  Delinquency.  City, 
town,  and  village  officials  need  the  help  of  the  forces  of 
righteousness ;  and  the  morally  down-and-outs  need  the  gentle 
touch  of  forces  that  stand  for  redemption. 

4.  Race  Problems  and  Race  Cooperation.  In  the  South- 
land we  naturally  think  first  of  the  Negro  race,  and  we  ought 
to  think  more  of  our  obligation  to  that  race.  Through  an 
efficient  department  of  social  service  the  cooperation  and  the 
help  so  seriously  and  so  justly  needed  can  be  given. 

5.  Intellectual,  Moral,  and  Social  Welfare.  The  reading 
of  the  public,  the  building  up  of  private  and  public  libraries, 
the  matters  of  entertainment  and  amusement,  the  stimulation 
of  social  contact  of  all  the  people  in  most  helpful  ways — all 
these  and  many  other  things  can  be  cared  for  under  the  work 
of  this  committee. 

6.  And  other  committees,  such  as  Industry  and  Labor; 
Civic  Improvements;  Public  Institutions  and  Enterprises — 


THE    COMING    CHURCH  161 

Educatioml,  Penal,  Charitable;  and  others  as  local  needs  may 
require,  may  be  appointed  and  used  to  great  advantage  to  the 
community  life. 

CHURCHES  SOCIOLOGICALLY   CLASSIFIED 

From  the  standpoint  of  social  service,  churches  may  be 
classified  into  at  least  four  distinct  groups,  each  one  of  which 
has  its  own  peculiar  community  problems.  They  are:  (1 )  The 
city  church,  (2)  the  large-town  church,  (3)  the  village  church, 
and  (4)  the  rural  church.  In  many  things  the  obligations  of 
these  groups  overlap,  and  become  one  in  common.  But  in 
other  things  each  stands  out  in  a  somewhat  different  sphere 
of  community  service.  The  social  program  of  each  of  these 
groups  will  differ  essentially  according  to  its  needs.  No  gen- 
eral program  can  possibly  be  made  to  fit  all  of  these  groups; 
any  general  scheme  that  succeeds  will  comprehend  the  com- 
plex needs  of  each  group  and  classify  the  work  under  each 
head  to  make  it  all  tangible  and  practical.  We  have  reached 
the  stage  of  the  sociological  movement  now  when  we  shall 
begin  to  translate  theory  into  practical  reality.  The  churches 
are  waiting  now  for  the  HOW  and  the  WHAT.  The  next 
step  before  us  is  the  step  of  local  enlistment,  organization, 
equipment,  and  a  trained  leadership.  This  brings  us  to  the 
practical  question  before  us. 

MATTERS  OF  NECESSARY  PREPARATION  BEFORE  US 

Like  all  other  departments  of  church  service  to-day,  the 
department  of  social  service  is  one  of  gradual  discovery  and 
enlargement.  For  a  long  period  of  time,  the  departments  of 
Sunday  school,  of  missions,  and  of  Christian  education  were 
each  one  considered  as  a  kind  of  side  issue.  Through  pro- 
cesses of  growth,  each  one  has  entered  now  into  the  one  gen- 
eral program  of  the  churches  as  the  main  things  for  which  the 
church  exists.  The  department  of  social  service  is  now  in  its 
first  stage  of  evolution  in  many  of  the  churches :  multitudes 
have  not  yet  discovered  it  at  all.  But  it  is  destined  to  take  its 
place  in  the  near  future  by  the  side  of  the  other  departments 
mentioned.    The  call  will  become  more  and  more  insistent  for 


162  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

special  training  and  equipment  for  the  world.  It  will  in  many 
instances  change  the  ideal  of  architecture  for  church  purposes. 
The  immediate  needs  for  this  service  lie  along  several  lines. 
We  will  venture  to  suggest  a  few  of  these  needs. 

1 .  The  creation  of  a  practical  literature  specially  adapted 
to  the  needs  of  church  workers.  We  need  a  literature  spe- 
cially prepared  for  the  churches  according  to  their  peculiar 
spheres,  whether  city,  town,  village,  or  country.  The  denomi- 
nations will  come  to  a  uniform  literature  just  as  they  have 
for  the  Sunday  school,  the  young  people,  and  for  missions. 
We  need  a  workers'  manual,  especially  for  those  who  would 
lead  in  such  work.  When  social  service  becomes  a  definite, 
organized  movement  in  the  denominations,  then  we  may  ex- 
pect the  evolution  of  literature  and  all  other  equipment 
necessary. 

2.  The  enlistment  and  special  training  of  pastors  for  the 
work.  Intelligent  pastoral  leadership  is  an  absolute  necessity. 
While  no  pastor  can  do  everything  that  is  called  for  in  general 
church  service,  he  can  yet  inspire  and  call  out  others  who  can 
assume  the  leadership  and  direct  the  work.  The  glory  of  this 
department  of  service  is  that  it  can  find  men  and  women  who 
can  think  out  the  problems  and  lead  the  forces.  The  large 
numbers  of  unenlisted  church  members  who  seem  to  have 
nothing  to  do  in  any  other  sphere  of  service,  can  be  enlisted 
in  this  service  that  comes  so  near  the  doors  of  every  home  in 
the  community. 

3.  More  definite  and  practical  instruction  is  needed  in  our 
schools.  Our  theological  seminaries  especially  have  been  giv- 
ing strong  emphasis  along  lines  of  sociological  study.  But  the 
work  needs  to  find  a  larger  place  in  all  of  our  schools,  even  in 
the  high  schools  themselves.  We  have  heard  much  about 
"Industrial  Arts,"  "Household  Economics,"  "Manual  Train- 
ing," and  all  such  suggestive  terms.  Why  not  expect  to  see 
the  full-rounded  development  of  all  these  important  subjects 
into  a  complete  system  of  social  service  to  a  community  life 
as  a  whole? 

The  coming  church,  realizing  that  it  is  called  to  minister  to 
all  the  needs  of  the  individual — spiritual,  moral,  social,  intel- 
lectual, and  physical — will  discover  that  in  that  call  it  is  neces- 


WHAT    THE    CHURCH    CAN    DO  163 

sarily  called  to  serve  the  whole  community  life  in  which  the 
individual  forms  a  constituent  part.  The  pulpit  of  the  coming 
church  can  preach  intelligently  and  consistently  the  program 
of  the  Master:  "And  Jesus  went  about  all  Galilee,  teaching 
in  their  synagogues  ( educational  service ) ,  preaching  the  gospel 
of  the  kingdom  (the  testimonial  service),  and  healing  all 
manner  of  sickness  and  all  manner  of  diseases  among  the 
people  (social  service)." 

It  is  said  that  Jesus  grew  in  "wisdom"  (i.  e.,  intellectually), 
and  in  "stature"  (i.  e.,  physically),  and  in  favor  with  God 
(i.  e.,  morally  and  spiritually),  and  "with  man"  (i,  e., 
socially).  So  should  His  churches  grow  full-rounded  and 
symmetrical,  that  they  may  reflect  the  full-orbed  Christ-life  to 
all  the  world. 


WHAT  THE  CHURCH  CAN  DO  TO  CONSERVE 
HUMAN  LIFE 

RABBI  RUDOLPH   I.    COFFEE,   PH.  D. 

I  WAS  glad  that  the  last  speaker  concluded  by  saying  that 
cleanliness  is  godliness,  because  the  church  and  the  school  will 
absolutely  agree  upon  that  point. 

So  far  as  this  fine  singing  is  concerned,  about  "Walking 
in  Jerusalem,"  boys,  you  can  do  it  now.  The  allies  are  there, 
and  they  are  going  to  keep  Jerusalem;  and,  hereafter,  there 
will  be  no  more  "scraps  of  paper,"  because  democracy  will  be 
written  large,  in  the  Holy  City,  which,  for  so  long,  has  been 
the  unholy  city ;  and  let  us  only  hope  that  it  will  be  something 
more  than  a  song,  but  a  real,  actual  fact  for  those  folks  who 
are  interested  in  the  upward  march. 

I  am  thinking,  this  April,  of  a  fool  thing  I  did  ten  years 
ago,  April  the  1st.  On  that  day  I  was  called  upon  to  officiate 
at  the  wedding  of  a  very  fine  young  lady — estimable  family, 
good  reputation,  poor  people.  But  the  intended  husband  was 
a  lucky  fellow  who  is  always  able  to  make  a  good  living, 
the  first  fellow  to  come  around  with  a  glad  hand,  to  offer  his 
services  for  all  philanthropic  purposes,  good  provider;  and  I 
felt  certain,  when  I  went  home  that  night,  that  I  had  officiated 


164  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

at  a  wedding  which  meant  happiness  and  joy  for  both  people. 
By  a  very  strange  coincident,  on  April  1st,  nine  years  ago,  I 
was  in  the  hospital,  the  Mercy  Hospital  of  Pittsburgh,  and 
one  of  the  distinguished  surgeons  came  out  of  the  operating 
room  and  said  to  me,  "It  is  all  right,  Rabbi.  Mrs.  X  will  be 
all  right.  She  will  get  over  the  operation.  Of  course,  she  will 
never  know  the  joys  of  motherhood,  but  she  will  be  all  right." 
I  didn't  quite  understand  what  he  meant.  In  going  to  a 
physician,  who  was  very  friendly  towards  me,  I  asked  him  to 
explain ;  and  he  says,  "Don't  you  know  that  two-thirds  of  the 
fellows  who  marry  are  unclean  and  unfit  to  marry?"  I 
started  the  study  and  investigation ;  and,  from  that  day  to 
this,  may  it  please  God,  as  long  as  I  live,  I  have  resolved  never 
again  to  officiate  in  unholy  wedlock. 

In  1913,  the  state  legislature  of  Pennsylvania  passed  a  law 
compelling  every  prospective  bride  and  groom,  under  oath,  to 
affirm  that  he  and  she  are,  to  the  best  of  their  knowledge,  in 
good  health;  and  I  was  the  only  clergyman  in  the  state  of 
Pennsylvania  who  fought  for  that  law.  That  is  my  first 
explanation  of  what  the  church  can  do  to  conserve  human  Hfe 
in  this  great  and  terrible  crisis. 

The  church  must  stand  for  cleanliness  on  the  day  of  mar- 
riage ;  and  when  a  fellow  goes  to  a  judge,  or  a  justice  of  the 
peace,  or  some  civil  official,  let  him  explain  to  his  friends  that 
he  was  clean  enough  to  be  married  under  the  sanction  of  the 
church.  In  other  words,  instead  of  trying  to  cure  and  remedy, 
we  shall  prevent  and  remove  the  horrible  curses,  which  the 
government  statistics  tell  us  to-day  are  costing  fifteen  hundred 
dollars  for  every  man  that  goes  into  the  army  infected  with 
venereal  disease.  I  tell  you  that  it  is  a  startling  travesty,  a 
tragic  travesty  on  the  impotence  of  the  church  in  the  past  that 
our  hands  have  been  tied.  We  have  been  upholding  the  double 
standard  of  morality.  "We  shall  have  segregation,  to  keep 
our  women  safe,"  they  tell  us.  Lo  and  behold!  however, 
great,  fine,  American  men — Raymond  Fosdick,  chairman  of 
the  Commission  on  Training  Camp  Activities,  Secretary 
Baker,  Secretary  Daniels,  President  Wilson,  as  foremost  of 
all  these — by  one  sweep  of  the  pen  decided  that  the  segre- 
gated district  must  end  where  there  is  a  Union  soldier. 


WHAT    THE    CHURCH    CAN    DO  165 

Now,  it  is  for  the  church  to  step  in  and  say  that  the 
segregated  idea  is  dead,  buried  forever,  and  that  if  our 
soldiers  are  kept  clean  in  the  cantonments,  clean  in  France, 
they  are  coming  home  to  a  country  as  clean  as  we  can  make 
this  country  for  them  to  live  in.  Therefore,  I  say  to  you,  on 
the  day  of  marriage,  the  church  must  stand  for  the  single 
standard,  only  the  single  standard  of  morality.  And  the  pity 
of  it  all  is  that  this  Bible,  on  which  we  place  our  basis,  has 
been  standing,  has  been  emphasizing  the  single  standard,  and 
we  seem  to  have  recognized  it  not. 

I  would  have  the  church  take  on  what  social  agencies  are 
doing  in  the  nonsectarian  world.  Only  this  week,  I  am 
reading,  in  New  York  and  Boston,  the  fine  work  they  are 
doing  in  prenatal  care.  They  are  doing  all  within  their  power 
to  study  women,  so  that,  before  the  baby  comes  into  the  world, 
the  mother  will  have  the  correct  atmosphere  and  the  proper 
instruction  in  how  to  care  for  the  child  prior  to  its  entrance 
into  this  world.  To-day,  prior  to  giving  birth  to  a  child,  the 
mother  hides  herself,  the  expect-ant  mother.  It  should  be  a 
badge  of  honor  to  go  forth,  that  "God  is  about  to  give  me  the 
holiest  privilege  a  woman  may  enjoy,  and  that  is  giving  birth 
to  a  child."  And  if  any  one  function  belongs  to  the  church 
it  is  to  emphasize  the  sacredness  and  the  sanctity  of  life,  by 
telling  this  woman,  "We  pray  God's  blessing  upon  you,  that 
your  child  to  be  may  be  an  American  citizen,  richly  blessing 
this  country."  That  seems  to  be  the  idea,  unfortunately,  too 
little  understood.  Yet  statistics  in  Detroit,  taken  last  year, 
show  that  two-thirds  of  the  women  bearing  children  have 
absolutely  no  medical  attention,  much  less  correct  guidance 
and  instruction.  Only  one  in  three  seeks  the  doctor  for 
instruction.  And  here  is  the  work  where  the  church  can 
emphasize  the  sanctity  of  human  life,  encouraging  the  right 
spirit  among  people,  the  right  outlook  on  this  problem. 

Next  month  throughout  the  country,  in  Jewish  synagogues, 
there  will  be  confirmation.  In  most  instances,  what  obtains 
with  me  will  obtain  with  other  congregations,  that  every 
boy  who  is  to  be  confirmed,  say,  of  fifteen  years  of  age, 
will  be  told  by  a  physician  just  what  physical  changes  take 
place  in  the  period  of  puberty.     Every  Jewish  girl  will  be 


166  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

told,  by  a  competent  woman  physician,  just  what  changes 
take  place  in  her  physique.  We  say  it  is  the  duty  of  the 
synagogue  and  the  church,  and  not  the  duty  of  companions 
on  the  street;  not  stuff  thrown  off  in  the  umbrages  of  the 
country ;  not  smutty  words  spoken  by  old  companions,  but,  in 
the  sanction  of  the  church,  by  competent  instructors,  show  our 
boys  and  girls  in  what  is  the  human  body  beautiful;  and  the 
minister  of  God  who  interprets  his  function  seriously  will  do 
all  within  his  power  so  to  prepare  his  girls  and  boys  that  the 
girl  will  expect  her  intended  to  be  just  as  pure  on  his  wedding 
day  as  the  man  demands  of  the  woman  in  America  to-day. 

The  church  realizes,  as  never  before,  the  tremendous  power 
and  strain  and  drain  placed  upon  it;  and  I  am  not  here  this 
morning  to  speak  to  men,  because  there  are  medical  men 
who  know  a  great  deal  more  about  it  than  I  do,  about  the 
terrible  ravages  of  venereal  diseases.  But  when  the  canton- 
ments were  filled  with  men  who,  some  way,  were  put  aside 
for  special  treatment,  surely  something  is  wrong  with  our 
work  in  the  past.  But,  thank  God,  we  are  living  in  the  most 
glorious  epoch  in  the  history  of  the  world.  Never  was  an 
army  gathered,  cared  for,  and  protected  in  the  way  the 
American  soldier  boy  was  gathered  from  all  corners  of  the 
country  and  protected,  and  by  the  motherly  arm  of  our  blessed 
government.  Before,  they  used  to  say :  "You  are  in  the  army ; 
nothing  counts."  Now,  we  say:  "You  are  in  the  American 
army ;  everything  counts."  Before,  during  the  Crusades,  they 
rallied  an  army  from  beloved  France,  and  the  soldiers  would 
not  go;  would  not  go  towards  Jerusalem  to  take  the  Holy 
City  out  of  the  hands  of  the  infidel,  until  they  gathered  another 
army  of  sixteen  hundred  lewd  women,  and  then  the  soldiers 
marched  forth  in  the  name  of  God.  To-day,  we  have  come 
to  the  right  basis,  and  we  say,  "Continence,  purity  in  the 
home  life,  is  the  sine  qua  non,  is  the  first  consideration  of  the 
American  soldier" ;  and  that  we,  after  demanding  purity  on 
behalf  of  the  soldiers,  can  we  do  less  in  the  cities  and  on  the 
farms  of  America  in  this  great  lesson,  which  the  church  will 
have  to  drive  home? 

Sickness  is  a  crime.  You  have  heard,  this  morning, 
typhoid    fever  spells   dirt,   which   it  does.     Ten   years   ago. 


WHAT    THE    CHURCH    CAN    DO  167 

Pittsburgh  had  more  cases  of  typhoid  fever  than  any  city  in 
America.  Were  we  proud  of  it  ?  Every  hour  of  every  day  a 
new  case  reported.  Did  we  boast  of  our  country?  No.  We 
installed  a  filtration  plant  in  Pittsburgh,  and  now  it  is  as  clean 
as  any  other  city  in  America.  We  did  not  blame  God  for  the 
typhoid  fever.  We  placed  the  blame  right  squarely  on  man; 
and  that  is  the  duty  of  the  church. 

A  hundred  years  ago.  in  Philadelphia,  four  persons  out  of 
five  had  the  marks  of  smallpox.  To-day,  you  can  live  your 
whole  life,  in  certain  parts  of  America,  and  never  see  the 
signs  of  smallpox.  One  hundred  and  twenty-five  years  ago, 
four  little  babies  out  of  five  died  before  the  first  birthday. 
To-day,  conditions  are  absolutely  reversed,  and  four  out  of 
five  live  to  the  end  of  the  first  birthday.  It  is  not  cleanliness 
alone.  It  is  godliness,  because  the  one  is  coexistent  with  the 
other.  And  now,  when  you  are  talking  about  conserving  your 
cotton,  and  about  the  diflFerent  forms  of  fruit  trees,  and  all 
your  agricultural  products  in  the  South,  it  is  the  natural 
transition  to  go  from  agriculture  to  the  school,  and  from  the 
school  to  the  church.  It  is  all  right  to  save  your  cotton  and 
your  pigs,  but  more  important  to  save  human  life,  which  is  the 
crowning  apex  of  God's  work. 

Professor  Irving  Fisher,  of  Yale  University,  said,  eight 
years  ago,  that  there  were  600,000  preventable  deaths  in  this 
country;  and,  in  the  year  1917,  he  raised  the  terrible  figures 
to  show  that  630,000  persons  died  from  preventable  causes. 
Now,  think  of  that.  If  the  church  could  only  bring  forth 
with  clarion  call  the  sanctity  of  human  life,  what  a  diflFerent 
atmosphere  there  would  be. 

Three  million  people  of  America  needlessly  ill  last  year. 
Three  million  people  whose  illness  could  have  been  prevented. 
Think  of  the  terrible  sum  in  dollars  and  cents  for  each  man, 
woman,  and  child,  sick,  out  of  work.  Can  you  conceive  of 
that  great  sum?  In  New  York  state  alone,  a  total  of  $14,- 
000,000.  So,  now,  we  have  taken  two  steps,  the  first  of 
which  is  workmens'  compensation.  It  is  sweeping  the  country. 
All  progressive  states  are  falling  into  line,  because  we  under- 
stand now  that  when  a  man  is  compensated  for  his  injuries, 


168  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

the  boss  and  the  corporation  provide  the  proper  safety  ap- 
pliances on  every  side.  I  remember  in  Pittsburgh,  in  1909, 
there  were  531  deaths  in  the  steel  mills.  And  as  soon  as  it 
was  arranged  that  compensation  be  paid,  and  the  safety  ap- 
pliances were  actually  put  in  effect,  very  soon  thereafter  the 
total  fell  down  to  a  minimum,  a  very  small  proportion  of  the 
original. 

My  point  is  that  this  is  a  function  of  the  church,  to  preach 
fearlessly  and  clearly,  upon  the  need  for  prolonging  human 
life.  And  the  second  step  for  workmens'  compensation,  as 
practically  covering  the  country,  is  health  insurance.  It  means 
a  great  deal  for  the  church  to  stand  up  and  preach  to-day  on 
behalf  of  health  insurance.  When  a  man  is  sick,  he  will 
receive  two-thirds  of  his  salary.  Every  other  civilized  country, 
and  at  least  one  uncivilized  country  in  Europe,  has  already 
installed  health  insurance.  We  are  the  only  civilized  country 
in  the  world  yet  to  follow  in  the  same  beaten  track.  We  need 
health  insurance,  and  we  need  it  in  the  name  of  the  church. 

There  is  a  great  field  for  the  church  at  this  moment,  much 
greater  than  ever  before.  You  have  heard  so  much  about  the 
decline  of  the  church.  It  is  not  true,  except  that  the  church 
has  not  accepted  the  challenge  thrown  out  to  it  through 
modern  times.  Will  the  church  preach  about  the  "other" 
world  of  which  we  know  nothing;  or  will  the  church  preach 
about  the  world  in  which  we  live  ?  Will  the  church  make  clear 
that  we  are  now  prolonging  life?  Fifty  years  ago,  thirty- 
three  and  a  third  years  was  the  average  span  of  life ;  to-day, 
it  is  forty.  Why  should  it  not  be,  as  the  Psalmist  says, 
seventy,  even  one-half  one  hundred  forty? 

Personally,  I  believe  absolutely  in  voluntary  motherhood. 
I  was  speaking  with  a  minister  coming  down  on  the  car.  He 
says  to  me,  "Rabbi,  how  can  you  say  that?  Doesn't  the 
Bible,  the  very  first  thing,  in  Genesis,  say,  'Be  fruitful,  and 
multiply,  and  replenish  the  earth'?"  I  said,  "Yes,  sir,  it 
does;  but  nowhere  do  I  read  in  the  Bible  where  it  says,  'Be 
fruitful,  and  multiply,  and  replenish  the  earth  with  degen- 
erates, imbeciles,  and  blind  babies'."     My  idea  of  religion  is 


WHAT    THE    CHURCH    CAN    DO  169 

a  God  of  love,  and  not  a  God  of  injustice.  I  can  not  conceive 
of  a  God  that  brings  a  blind  child  into  the  world.  I  can  not 
conceive  of  a  God  punishing  the  innocent  child. 

Let  me  tell  just  a  little  story,  to  illustrate  the  point,  and 
then  I  am  done.  Last  Decoration  Day,  May  30th,  up  North, 
I  was  in  Johnstown,  Pa.  You  may  remember  the  day  fol- 
lowing May  31,  1889,  there  was  a  terrible  storm.  The  river 
overflowed,  the  walls  of  the  dam  burst,  and  3,200  human 
lives  were  swept  out  of  existence  within  an  hour's  time.  After 
speaking  there  before  a  Jewish  congregation,  I  was  taken  to 
see  the  most  beautiful  spot  in  the  town,  a  wonderful  cemetery, 
high  up  above  the  hills.  A  dear  old  grandmother  asked  me  to 
first  come  with  her  and  see  the  thousand  unnamed  graves. 
They  are  buried,  by  these  friendly  people,  whose  remains 
were  not  recognized.  And  then  she  took  me  over  to  a  little 
mound,  and  beneath  that  lay  her  husband,  a  victim  of  that 
terrible  catastrophe.  And  this  dear  old  grandmother  almost 
savagely  turned  on  me,  and  said,  'Tf  God  is  love,  why  did 
He  make  my  three  little  babies  orphans,  when  they  needed  a 
father's  care  and  affection?"  We  entered  her  machine.  I 
could  not  answer,  but  I  asked  to  be  taken  up  to  the  dam,  the 
reservoir  from  which  the  water  of  the  town  comes.  When 
we  came  there,  by  the  merest  good  fortune,  I  met  the  engineer 
who  had  been  on  the  works  the  day  of  the  terrible  tragedy, 
and  I  asked  him  to  explain  it  to  us.  He  said  a  week  before  the 
tragedy  they  had  the  annual  meeting  of  the  board  of  directors, 
and  there  was  a  new  man  on  the  board;  and  he  said,  "Mr. 
President,  I  want  to  make  a  motion  that  we  spend  ten  thousand 
dollars  to  strengthen  the  dam."  The  president  said,  "Sit 
down.  You  are  out  of  order.  This  meeting  was  called  to 
pass  the  annual  dividend."  The  young  man  insisted,  "Mr. 
President,  but  the  dam  is  unsafe."  The  president  said,  "You 
will  take  your  seat  or  leave  this  room."  You  see,  they  had 
money  for  dividends,  but  no  money  for  improvements.  A 
week  later  there  was  a  heavy  rainstorm,  and  the  dam,  in  its 
weakened  condition,  burst,  killing  3,200  human  souls.  And 
then  I  turned  to  this  dear  grandmother,  and  I  said,  "Grand- 
mother, God  did  not  kill  your  husband.     Men  did."     So  I  tell 


170  "distinguished  service"  citizenship 

you  that  when  there  is  disease,  and  filth,  and  starvation  in 
this  country,  it  is  not  God's  fault.  The  sooner  we  place  the 
responsibility  where  it  belongs,  on  our  own  shoulders,  the 
sooner  will  we  win  this  war  and  become  a  nation  of  healthy 
people,  a  nation  of  happy,  kindly  people. 


VIII.     ORGANIZATION 


The  Southern  Sociological  Congress 
The  Southwestern  Sociological  Congress 
Index  to  Subjects 

Index  to  Speakers,  Writers,  and  Officers 
List  of  Publications 


ORGANIZATION 


THE  SOUTHERN  SOCIOLOGICAL  CONGRESS 

OFFICERS 

President Bishop  Theodore  D.  Bratton,  Jackson,  Miss. 

Vice-President Miss  Belle  H.  Bennett,  Richmond,  Ky. 

General  Superintendent Dr.  Edwin  C.  Dinwiddie,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Educational  Secretary J.  E.  McCulloch,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Treasurer Mr.  Wade  H.  Cooper,  Washington,  D.  C. 

BOARD  OF  GOVERNORS 

Dr.  W.  D.  Weatherford,  Chairman Nashville,  Tenn. 

Dr.  James  H.  Dillard Charlottesville,  Va. 

Prof.  J.  A.  C.  Chandler Williamsburg,  Va. 

Judge  J.  A.  McCullough Baltimore,  Md. 

Dr.  W.  W.  Alexander,  Secretary Atlanta,  Ga. 

STATE  EXECUTIVE  COMMITTEEMEN 

Judge  W.  H.  Thomas Alabama 

Dr.  E.  C.  Dinwiddie District  of  Columbia 

Prof.  J.  M.  Farr Florida 

Dr.   C.   B.  Wilmer Georgia 

Miss   Frances   Ingram Kentucky 

Miss  Elisabeth  Gilman  Maryland 

Mr.  J.  R.  Bingham Mississippi 

Prof.  E.  C.  Branson North  Carolina 

Dr.  A.  T.  Jamison South  CaroHna 

Mr.  W.  R.  Cole Tennessee 

Prof.  Jackson   Davis Virginia 

Prof.  E.  H.  Vickers West  Virginia 

STATE  SECRETARIES 

Prof.  J.  L.  Sibley Alabama 

Mr.  W.  L.  Radcliff District  of  Columbia 

Mr.  Marcus  C.  Fagg Florida 

Prof.  Cornelius  J.  Heatwole Georgia 

Prof.  J.  Virgil  Chapman Kentucky 

Dr.  Richard  W.  Hogue Maryland 

Mr.  J.  C.  Wilson Mississippi 

Judge  Gilbert  T.  Stephenson North  Carolina 

Mrs.  Thomas  S.  Silcox South  Carolina 

Mr.  C.  C.  Menzler Tennessee 

Mr.  William  Anthony  Aery Virginia 

Dr.  S.  L.  Jepson West  Virginia 

THE  SOUTHWESTERN  SOCIOLOGICAL  CONGRESS 

OFFICERS 

President Governor  Charles  H.  Brough,  Little  Rock,  Ark. 

Vice-President Prof.  J.  W.  Jent,  Shawnee,  Okla. 

General   Superintendent Edwin   C.   Dinwiddie,  Washington,   D.  C. 

Educational  Secretary J.  E.  McCulloch,  Washington,  D.  C. 


ORGANIZATION  173 

BOARD  OF  GOVERNORS 

Governor  C.  H.  Brough,  Chairman „ Little  Rock,  Ark. 

Dr.  A.  J.  Barton _ „ Alexander,  La. 

President  W.  B.  Bizzell College  Station,  Texas 

Dr.  J.  W.  Jent Shawnee,  Okla. 

Mrs.  Mary  C.  C.  Bradford Denver,  Col. 

STATE  EXECUTIVE  COMMITTEEMEN 

Dr.   A.   C.    Miller Arkansas 

Mrs.  Mary  C.  C.  Bradford Colorado 

Mr.    A.   A.    Hyde Kansas 

Hon.  W.  O.   Hart Louisiana 

Dr.  Charles  A.  Ellwood Missouri 

Dr.   W.   D.    Matthews....™ Oklahoma 

President  W.  B.   Bizzell Texas 

STATE  SECRETARIES 

Prof.  J.  H.   Reynolds ^Arkansas 

Mr.   Henry   Sacks _ _ _ Colorado 

Mr.  Avery  G.  dinger Kansas 

Prof.  W.  O.  Scroggs Louisiana 

Dr.  G.   B.  Mangold Missouri 

Mr.   E.   B.   Hinshaw „ Oklahoma 

Prof.  A.  Caswell  Ellis Texas 


INDEX  TO  SUBJECTS 


PAGE 

Board  of   Governors 172 

Children  of  Belgium,  The 97 

Children  of  England,  The 100 

Coming  Church,  The  157 

Community  Organization  41 

Comrades  30 

Coming  Democracy,  The 11 

Creed  and  a  Crusade,  A 28 

Creed,  The  American's  138 

Flag  of  Our  Fathers 10 

It's  a  Hard  Fight  to  Save  the  Children 72 

Industrial  Democracy  147 

Interracial  Cooperation  122 

League  of  Nations,  The 20 

Leisure  Time,  The  Proper  Use  of 68 

Lynching,  The  Call  of  the  South  to  Prevent 129 

Lynching,  Resolution  on 106 

Outlook,  The 112 

Platform  of  the  Congress,  The 8 

Practice  of  Citizenship,  The 31 

Prayer  for  Children,  A 96 

Program  of  Jesus,  The 156 

Progress  of  the  Laborer 139 

Public  Health,  A  Community  Program  for 75 

Publications  of  the  Congress 174 

Race  Relations,   Program  on 107 

Race  Relations,  Introductory  Address 109 

Social  Justice,  The  Search  for 149 

Social  Reconstruction 49 

Value  of  Prevention,  The 74 

Venereal  Disease,  The  Menace  of 80 

Venereal  Disease,  The  Government's  War  on 86 

What  the  Church  Can  Do ., 163 


INDEX  TO  SPEAKERS,  WRITERS  AND 
OFFICERS 


PAGE 

Aery,  Mr.  William  Anthony 172 

Alexander,  Dr.  Charles  T 157 

Alexander,  Rev.  W.  W 172 

Barton,  Dr.  A.  J.„ 173 

Bennett,  Miss  Belle  H 172 

Bingham,  Mr.  J.  R 172 

Branson,  Dr.  E.  C 172 

Bratton,  Theodore  D 108,  172 

Bradford,  Mrs.  Mary  C.  C 173 

Bizzell,  Prof.  W.  B 173 

Brough,  Gov.  C.  H 172,  173 

Campbell,  Dr.  W.  J 20 

Carter,  Miss  L.  E _ 97 

Chandler,  Dr.  J.  A.  C 172 

Chapman,  Prof.  J.  Virgil 172 

dinger,  Mr.  A.  G 173 

Coffee,  Rabbi  Rudolph  1 163 

Cole,  Mr.  W.  R 172 

Cooper,  Wade  H 172 

Davis,   Prof.   Jackson „  172 

Dillard,  Dr.  James  H 109.  172 

Dinwiddie,    Dr.    Edwin    C 172 

Dowd,  Dr.  Jerome 147 

Dowling,    Dr.    Oscar.. 80 

Eleazer,    Robert    B 147 

Ellis,  Prof.  A.  CaswelL 173 

Ellwood,  Dr.  C.  A 173 

Fagg,  Mr.  Marcus  C 172 

Farr,  Prof.  J.  M _ 172 

Gardner,  Dr.  Frank  H 86 

Gilman,   Miss   Elisabeth 172 

Glocker,  Dr.  Theodore  W 139 

Giddings,   Professor  26,    40 

Hart,  Dr.  Hastings  H „„    49 

Hart,  Mr.  W.  O „ 173 

Heatwole,  Prof.  C.  J 172 

Hinshaw,  Mr.  E.  B 173 


PAGE 

Hogue,  Dr.  R.  W „ 172 

Hyde,  Mr.  A.  A „ 173 

Ingram,   Miss   Frances 172 

Jackson,  Dr.  Henry  E 31 

Jamison,  Dr.  A.  T 172 

Jent,  Rev.  J.  W _ 172,  173 

Jepson,  Dr.  S.  L „..  172 

Kesler,  Dr.  J.  L_ _ 112 

McCulloch,  J.  E 108,  172 

McCulIough,  Judge  J.  A „ 172 

Mangold,  Dr.  G.  B 173 

Matthews,  Dr.  W.  D 173 

Menzler,  Mr.  C.  C 172 

Miller,  Dr.  A.  C 173 

Mims,  Dr.  Edwin 129 

Newsholme,  Sir  Arthur 100 

Radcliff,  Mr.  W.  L 172 

Rauschenbusch,   Walter  96 

Reynolds,   Prof.  J.  H 173 

Rogers,  James  E .. 41 

Sacks,   Mr.   Henry 173 

Scroggs,  Dr.  W.  O... 173 

Settle,  T.  S 68 

Sibley,  Prof.  J.  L 172 

Silcox,  Mrs.  Thomas  S 172 

Stephenson,  Judge  Gilbert  T 172 

Snow,  Major  W.  F._ 88 

Stiles,  Major  C.  W.._ 75 

Tippy,  Rev.  Worth  M 11 

Thomas,  Judge  W.  H 172 

Vale,  Rev.  R.  E 19 

Vickers,  Prof.  E.  H 172 

Weatherford,  Dr.  W.  D 172 

Wilmer,  Dr.  C.  B 172 

Wilson,   President  107,  135 

Wilson,  Mr.  J.  C 172 

Work,  Prof.  Monroe  N 122 


PUBLICATIONS 

OF  THE 

Southern  Sociological  Congress 

1.     "The  Call  of  the  New  South,"  387  pages, 

cloth $2.00 

J     2.     "The  South  Mobilizing  for  Social  Serv- 
/  ffj    ice,"  704  pages,  cloth.     A  Library  on 

Social  Questions 2.00 

J  3.  "Battling  for  Social  Betterment,"  228 
I  lJ-  ps^cs,  cloth.  Deals  with  the  Church 
'  /      and  Social  Service  and  Race  Relations 1 .00 

•    4.     "The   Human   Way,"    136  pages,   paper. 
>1,^ />;      Discusses  Race  Problems  from  Southern 
"^^  viewpoint 50 

5.  "The  Challenge  of  Social  Service,"  80 
pages,  paper.  Six  addresses  on  vital 
social  questions  by  specialists 25 

6.  "Lynching — Removing  Its  Causes,"  by 
W.  D.  Weatherford,  Ph.  D.  12  pages, 
paper.     Per  hundred 5.00 

7.  "A  Challenge  to  the  New  Chivalry,"  by 
J.  E.  McCulloch.    20  pages 10 

8.  "The  New  Chivalry— Health,"  550  pages, 
cloth.     A  Study  of  the  Conservation  of 

/  Health ' 2.00 

V     9.     "Democracy  in  Earnest,"  416  pages,  cloth. 
/  ^,^       A  Study  of  Social  Problems  in  the  New 
/''   '  World  Order 3.00 


Order  of: 

Southern  Sociological  Congress 

Munsey  Building  Washington,  D.  C. 


University  of  CalHbmia 

SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 

405  Hilgard  Avenue,  Los  Angeles,  CA  90024-1388 

Return  this  material  to  the  library 


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